Telephones & Cell phones

What do you use for telephones and/or cell phones around the farm? I have a retail greeenhouse and farm market. I could be anywhere on thirty five acres. Not always is there someone in the store next to the telephone if it should ring. We have been using long range portable phones from Engenious. We can get coverage up to several thousand feet from the base. They work well when they work but they fail often and are very expensive the buy and have repaired. I need to replace what I have but I can't find another system with the range I need. I also need to be able to activate our fax machine with the phone. Any thoughts? Thanks

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Permalink Reply by Matt on December 18, 2012 at 4:08pm

We dropped the home/business land line phone this year. We both have cell phones and we really did not need the land line. We use an internet fax line. This is a fax number that you give to customers and your faxes are delivered as PDFs to your e-mail box. Multiple free online services offer this.

With the extortion rates/taxes that are on phone lines now, the fewer the better. Many people e-mail us now as well.

For cell phones you want to go with whomever has the best coverage in the area where you will be. Most providers offer unlimited mobile to mobile on their network so calls between phones are free.

We also use FRS radios in the fields. They work well out to about a half mile. We also have some GMRS radios that we use when we know people will be up to a mile to two miles away. You will find that radios will be used a LOT when you are in the field/shop/packing house, etc. Cells will be used mainly for receiving outside calls.

My wife and I are also both ham radio operators so we may be a bit biased towards radios. You did not say how large of an operation you are. In our area there are a few trunked radio operations that you can rent radios and service on a month-to-month basis. They cover about a 100 mile range and cost $10/month per radio for unlimited use. If I had a larger operation that worked within a few counties and needed to use commincate with a crew, it would probably be the cheapest way to go.