My adventure into cell phones vs landlines started when Xfinity lost Bally Sports Detroit (home of the Detroit Tigers) and instead of reducing my monthly bill because of losing a key network, they raised it $50 per month!

No matter where you are located, I’m finding that the highest possible price paid for internet, TV and landline is a bundle which includes a landline. In Ann Arbor the two competitors for TV if you want all the sports channels plus news are ATT and Xfinity. ATT is way cheaper but the internet is slower and they DO NOT HAVE an option for a land line! Huh?! I thought ATT was the phone company.

So, I decided we could live without a landline and transferred my landline phone number to a new cell phone and switched to ATT. By and large, cell phone only worked okay but we did miss the landline for several reasons. Most importantly, we had a landline receiver in the bedroom, kitchen and office. The receiver itself with big buttons, always charged up in its own cradle and easy to use features was nice. Also, the size and shape made it possible to tuck it under your ear and shoulder when using your hands while talking on the phone. Being that I only have one ear (right), this is important because I cannot hold the receiver in my left hand while I write with my left. I explained my lament for my old landline to my brother-in-law and he found an item on Amazon called CELL2JACK for $37 that takes a Bluetooth message from one or more cell phones and sends the message to your landline which sends to all receivers throughout the house. So I ordered it.

It came today and it took less than 5 minutes to hook up and presto! just like magic, I now have all three landline receivers working like they worked in the past with two HUGE additional benefits.

First of all, if one considers the difference in cost and channels I was getting from Xfinity, essentially, I was paying $80 per month for my landline even though it showed up on my bill as $30 because Xfinity was already $50 higher on TV and internet than ATT. Internet with ATT is definitely slower* than Xfinity internet so it may not be ideal for any kind of business wherein you are constantly downloading photos and large files. For everyday uses, it is fine for us.

Secondly, now we can take our “landline” with us when we leave the house. Remember, our new landline is actually my second cell phone which of course is not only a mobile phone, but in effect is a small computer and an awesome camera. An added bonus is that it is also tethered to my car’s Bluetooth.

We may not have “cut the cable” yet but we did cut the cord on our landlines. I hope this helps if you are an old dinosaur that loves his landline but is sick of paying a ridiculous premium for it.

UPDATE: Though on the first attempt to set this up, it worked to my satisfaction, Alice said she could hardly hear the audio on the landline now. So I started digging into my new cell phone and found several settings to enhance the sound including a special “hearing aid enhancement” control. Also, I eventually realized that my Vtech landline receivers need to be on an active call to adjust the volume. I did that too and also switched the charger on the Cell2Jack to my tablet charger instead of the phone charger to be certain that no hiss or hum would interfere with the audio. There are probably even more tweaks that a person more tech savvy than I could do to improve audio so it exceeds the audio previously experienced on the landline. The only somewhat inconvenient requirement to get good clear audio on the landline is that the cell phone which the Cell2Jack is paired to through Bluetooth must be fairly close to the Cell2Jack device. That is, when you have the cell phone in your pocket miles away, your land line will not operate at all and if that cell phone is in a different room, the audio on the landline will be compromised.

All in all, it has been a great find.

Your not so techie landline user,

A Brian Cain, the Michigan Vintner

*I couldn’t believe how slow ATT internet was for downloading large files and multiple photographs compared to Xfinity so I did a bit of tweaking. First, I tired taking the modem/dish off the bookshelf and put it in the window. No effect. Then I turned it around, still no effect. Then I opened the drapes. VOILA!! Downloading this Squarespace blog site went from just over four minutes to less than thirty seconds. With Xfinity, it was instantaneous, however, so okay but not great. Also, the continuous sound of “grinding gears” coming from the modem are now gone. I guess we’ll need to keep the drapes open. Keeping the drapes open further improves the fidelity of the “landline” phones too. ABC