I haven't had a wired phone line in my name since I can't remember when. The last time I had a wireline at home was when I was renting a room in a house with 4 others. Around that time, I started using my cell phone more and more. I stoped answering the house phone altogether because I didn't want to take messages for anybody else. I told all my friends to just call my mobile. Based on my experience, I wrote the following article for Howard Forums. I'm reposting it here for others who might be considering cutting the wire. I also think there are some ideas in here that developers should consider.

I've been wireless since 1999. Ordering pizza has been a problem but Dominos lets me order on-line now w/o a phone.

In the early days I had to ration my minutes. When unlimited nights and weekends started rolling out, that went away.

I used to use free VOIP services like DialPad. That worked OK for friends and family, but not business. There's no free VOIP around anymore but I have so many minutes in my wireless plan, I never worry about using my phone.

What I really hate are 1-800 numbers that make you sit on hold for an hour before you can talk to a real human. You can burn a lot of minutes calling your bank or the cable company.

Occasionally I've wished that I could FAX something. My cell phone doesn't have FAX capabilities. It can provide an internet connection but can't send a FAX. Go figure. If I were really desparate I'd sign up for e-fax (which is free for incoming documents). Recently, I've found that I can e-mail scanned images directly to people who ask me to fax something. They almost always will accept a scanned image as an e-mail attachment.

I bought UltimateTV instead of TiVo specifically because it doesn't require a land-line. Now I use TimeWarner's DVR that works directly over the cable.

I run into trouble when I buy a new phone. My carrier expects me to call from a land-line while they talk me through setting up my new phone. I use my wife's cell phone instead.

I never worry about passing out my cellular number. Again, I have lots of minutes and an extensive phonebook. I often just ignore incomming calls that don't caller ID match to my phonebook. I figure they can leave a message and I'll call them back.

My biggest problems today are battery life, reception, and ringer volume. I have a two story home in a fringe area. If I wander around my house with my phone in my pocket it drops in and out of service. Then the battery dies. I leave my phone in a charging cradle on the second floor where it gets great signal, but I can't hear it ring downstairs.

I'd really like an extension ringer that I can put elsewhere in my house or garage. I think they should sell dummy phones that aren't real phones but just ringers. They would ring whenever somebody called my number. Not a device that works with my phone but something that works independent of my phone. It should listen in on the same channel my phone does and ring at the same time my phone rings. I'd like one of those on my desk at work and one in my garage at home.

I'd also like a nagging voicemail indicator. Something that doesn't stop beeping until I shut it off manually. OK, battery life might be worse but it should certainly work while the phone is plugged into a charger. I can't run upstairs and look at the display every half hour.

I've thought about buying a baby room monitor or intercom but I don't want to hear everything going on upstairs. I just want to hear my phone ring.

I've thought about trying to build my own extension ringer that's activated by the vibrations of my phone. Seems like it would be easy to do, but I have a million other little projects to chase after.

I've thought about trying to use a PC connected to a data cable, connected to my phone to try to detect and announce incoming calls. Bluetooth would be another option. Again, I just don't get around to it.

I've thought about external antennas many times, but I find reception is OK if I leave it docked in certain spots.