We were one of the last hold-outs. ATT told me they plan to cancel all land lines by October of this year. Here is a little update for those of you who might be in the same position:
I used our 742 number to dial out as my cell phone can be a little spotty. Alas, with all the work ATT did over the holidays on State Park Road, we had dial tone only 6 weeks out of 8. It was fixed once, but went out again. A nice repairman came twice in one day saying he wasn’t able to get us working again. He happened to mention that he noticed in the box down the road that 22 locations in our area were not operational. My guess was that we were the last ones in the neighborhood to finally cancel our 742 land line service.
When I called to cancel, I was told we could keep our number and forward it to my cell. That sounded just fine. They said it would take 2 to 3 days to activate and was $11.00 a month. I waited a few days, called again. They fiddled around with it and said it would now take 5 days and it would roll to my cell. I tried again… no luck. The last time I called, I was on the phone with them for 2 1/2 hours. Apparently they told me I should not have asked to ‘cancel’ our service. Even though the “Forever number” was set up in the same call, that rep cancelled our service first and it would have to be re-activated but now a wait time of 30 days. Soooo… land line number no more.
Do you still have a 742 land line? ATT also said you can have an option for a second phone with your number that works off Wi-Fi for $51.00 a month. It didn’t sound exciting to me to have two phones to keep track of and they promised the same 30 day wait time. If you do plan to keep your number, be sure to not say the word ‘cancel’ during your call.
So, you might want to plan ahead and see how to make phone service work up here with just your cell. Just a tip.
Meanwhile, you can always reach me on my cell!
Bonnie Phelps, Realtor on my ‘Forever Number”:
760-533-1742
Palomar Mountain News 
Look into an Ooma phone. It works off the internet and is low cost per month. An up front cost to purchase the Ooma phone to begin with. Transfer the phone number to that. Kathy Flora
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By: Kathleen "Kathy" Flora on February 5, 2026
at 9:20 am
Thank you Kathy. We’ll check it out and a couple other options and share our findings with all.
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By: Bonnie Phelps on February 5, 2026
at 10:06 pm
Hi, Bonnie,
It’s unfortunate that ATT plans to drop the land lines and go strictly cell. If you call 911 from a land line your home address shows up on the dispatcher’s display whereas from a cell it might give the wrong location or take longer for your location to be identified due to different factors. It’s a good idea to confirm your address when you use a cell phone to call 911 from a residence.
Cell service has always been an issue for us here off State Park Road. Standing by a south facing window sort of works for us but dropped calls with one or two bars is the norm.
We are now using a Verizon Network Extender. As long as we have internet we are getting 4 bars on our cell phones. Even outside around the house we get 4 bars but it begins to fade the further away you go from the extender.
The extender was pretty easy to set up. We would to still prefer to have a land line in addition to the extender, especially for an emergency, but I guess we don’t really have a choice.
Cliff Kellogg
>
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By: Cliff Kellogg on February 5, 2026
at 6:11 am
Maybe you should try my ATT phone at your home? I was so loyal to Verizon until they took all their antennas down. ATT is so much better and we cut our phone bill in half plus tied in a third phone. My works perfect at our place in Missouri and the camera on this new phone is amazing… fun seeing you today!
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By: Bonnie Phelps on February 5, 2026
at 10:13 pm
I liked having one as cell phone not always reliable. I have one I can plug into the wall terminal if the power goes out on the wireless land line.
`”Our death may be the end of our success, our productivity, our fame, or our importance among people, but it is not the end of our fruitfulness. The opposite is true; the fruitfulness of our lives shows itself in its fullness only after we have died….the beauty of life is that it bears fruit long after life itself has come to an end.” –Henri Nouwen, Our Greatest Gift
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By: Rosemary Johnston on February 4, 2026
at 10:10 pm
I understand. However, according to ATT, that won’t be an option anymore after October with their goal of having all land lines out of service by then.
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By: Bonnie Phelps on February 5, 2026
at 10:07 pm