Going cell phone gung ho; many people dropping land line service

• Q. I'm thinking of canceling my land-line phone service and using my cell phone as my only phone.
• According to the technology think tank Gartner Inc., up to 10 percent of the nation's 170 million cell phone customers have given up their land lines.
• The savings, of course, can vary from person to person, from $20 for basic phone customers to up to $100 or more for people who use a great deal of long distance.
• Dumping your land line is pretty easy --- just call the phone company and cancel your service.
• But before you cancel, you should review your last land-line phone statement to see how many minutes of local and long-distance calls you used, and then make sure you have enough minutes in your wireless plan to cover the added usage.
• Family cell plans can alleviate this to a certain degree, but then the savings from not having a land-line are truly buried in the costs of multiple cell phones and a high amount of usage.
• While the economics may not work in all cases, the portability and ease-of-use does, since the chance of missing important phone calls decreases considerably, no matter where you are.
• According to a Gartner survey of 294 cellular customers who had not canceled their traditional phone service, 27 percent said poor quality of cell service kept them from making the change, while 21 percent cited costs.
• Another 12 percent said they needed their land-line service for their dial-up Internet connection, while 5 percent said they would pass because they couldn't switch their fixed-line phone number to their cellular service.
• You can still dial 911 from a land-line phone, however, even if you have no service whatsoever.
• But a land line can also be more reliable in trying to reach family and friends during emergencies.