I have been thinking about this for a while, but I use my phone service with DSL to update my Quicken regularly. And I was mistrustful of 911 services over a cellphone and whether or not it really worked since I have an out of state cellphone number. (There’s this whole thing I learned with working in telecom about how 911 circuits are set up, etc. Not really an applicable concern anymore.)
At any rate, the thing that finally drove me to try this out was figuring out my phone expense. I spent about $600.00 in 2008 on my landline and DSL service. I thought about doing dry loop DSL, but I have been slowly invading my boyfriend’s house and frankly, I give up trying to go home to update my information for a few hours every week, check the mail, etc. Life will be a lot easier with my own laptop at his house and using his wireless cable DSL service.
While I am issued a laptop via my company, I’ve seen crap happen to people’s work laptop and the m.o. of the IT department is just to swap out your hard drive and hand you back a re-imaged machine for you to spend 2 days reconfiguring back to your old setup. Not really my preferred solution if I keep personal stuff on there. (Which is encouraged, and yet strangely discouraged. They like to talk out of both sides of their mouth. It’s weird.)
At any rate, I also figured out that a small netbook costs about $450 with shipping included. Since that’s cheaper than what I spent last year on phone service, I decided I could cut the phone expense and add about $55 a month back into my pocket and throw that at my credit card debt. I am paying for this new computer with a charge plate, so this means I have to pay the balance at the end of the month, so it’s similar to cash and I get points.
The other thing is that I’m still covering the cellphone bill for me and my parents and I have discovered through dialing 911 many times locally that I have no problem getting the police dispatch on the line when I need them. Short of another 9/11 type disaster near my condo and the cell towers being jammed with traffic, I should be able to meet my telecommunications needs with just a cellphone. (For those of you who think I’m crazy, please note, I can bike to the Pentagon from my apartment and you just never know. After all there were two bombing attempts on the World Trade Center.)
So yay for me adding to the economic downfall by spending less and paying down my debt, but that paradox of thrift also means another yay because I’m adding to the GDP by purchasing an electronic device!
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Although I don’t live in heavily populated area like you, we have been advised by those in the know – that in the event of an emergency it is better to use your cellphone, then the house phone to call 911. Mostly because it goes directly to state police and their response time is better then the county.
I think you will still be fine regardless how the system works in your area.
so are you going to get a netbook, if so, what kind? I’ve been thinking about it for the last 6 months, but my coworker keeps saying I shouldn’t…
I actually got a great Acer Aspire netbook (w/XP, which was a nice selling point) for less than $400. If you’re interested, I can send you the link. It’s got 1 gig RAM that can be upgraded to 1.5 gigs. It’s also got 160GB of storage. Its only downside is being small (upside for portability but not for eyes), but that doesn’t bother me.