Ben's Bits

When the rates on cell phone calling initially started dropping and people started to use cell phones as a primary home phone we saw a number of devices such as the CellSocket that were designed to allow you to feed a cell phone into your regualr home POTS wiring and use it with your home phones. Eventually the interest in these devices seemed to drop off and I actually picked one up on clearance for under $10. One of the biggest inconveniences is that they are tied to a specific phone model. Studies I have seen indicate the average cell phone user changes handsets every year which entailed purchasing an entirely new CellSocket something few consumers were willing to do.

The advent of the family plan which allows you to dedicate a device to replacing you home phone while sharing minutes may revitalize products like CellSocket. Meanwhile technologial advances may have solved the phone must match adapter problem. I recently saw a product called Dock-N-Talk which claims to do just that. You can get different cables for different phones but better yet is support for Bluetooth which has become a standard feature on cell phones. Combining a product such as this with an additional “line” on your cell phone plan could just be what it takes for you to cut the wire.