Is the death of landlines a reflection on the economy?
The New York Times has an article up, claiming that by the end of the year one in five American households will not have a home phone. Curiously, they think the downward economy has a lot to do with it.
I don't get that at all. It's not an economic issue when people realize that in the age of cell phones, Skype and cable Internet access, having a landline makes little sense for most people. Europe's economy has been booming for the last five years, during which time more and more people have realized that land lines are simply the withered umbilical of a past age of communication.
I suppose it's possible that the credit crunch has made some people realize that they haven't really needed a landline for years. But tangibly linking the obsolescence of the landline to Lehman seems like the sort of perspective imposed by a New York editor.
Out of curiosity, is there anyone out there who still finds a landline indispensable? Tell us why.
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My suburban house doesn't get a signal. Landlines are a necessity if I want to receive calls at home.
Additionally, a landline phone doesn't need to be charged before use.
I don't have (and have never had, in my adult life) a landline, but I'm a bachelor with no children and no dependants.
If I had kids, or someone with special needs living with me, I would definitely have a landline, for a few reasons:
1) Landline corded phones have a -permanent- location in the house, normally on a wall in a visible location. This makes it easier for visitors and caretakers to have access to the line
2) 911 calls on landlines are still much, much easier for 911 operators to trace, especially to a phyiscal location. I don't want my 3 year old son or daughter to have to explain to the operator that we're at home- and possibly, where "home" is- when I'm incapacitated.
3) Related to 2, a landline phone is of a nominal design and most phones are functionally almost exactly the same. This is definitely not so with mobile phones- while many of them are similar, there is massive variation even in something as basic as the button to press to initiate a call.
4) Cell towers are relatively reliable phone and data-wise, but a land-line is going to tend to be more reliable then a VoIP phone in emergencies, as they don't rely on your house having power, and phone lines get higher priority then cable lines do in an emergency / repair situation.
5) okay, i'm a bit of a luddite / traditionalist when it comes to some things. And dammit, at this point i'm having to come up with a SIP-phone adapter / conversion so i can make the pay phone i just aquired work when I mount it in the living room...
Just my 2.5 cents :D
~Cheers~ Bilby
What a great bunch of points, Bilby.
What a great bunch of points, Bilby.
I have one for a couple of reasons. I don't give my cell phone number out to everyone, the landline operates as a filter for people you might want to be able to contact you, but not contact you ALL THE TIME. Also, say what you will, but the telephone infrastructure is pretty solid. I've had cellphone and cable issues WAY more often than I've lost land line service (which totals once in 35 years).
When I moved I decided to give up on the landline because the only calls I ever got on it were spam, of one kind of another. In my view, direct marketing is what's killing the landline.
I had a work-provided cell phone for years. For sheer portability and usefulness, you can't beat them.
However, I've resisted getting a PERSONAL cell phone all these years because:
1. I really don't like the contracts. Early termination fees? You mean, if your service sucks, calls are constantly dropped, that I simply can't 'opt out' of using your 'service' without paying a massive fee? Ho ho, fuck you.
2. Constantly changing / raising rates - I know everyone's hurting, but when I sign a contract specifying service A for price B, I expect price B to remain stable - until renegotiated. I don't like the fact that (some/most) can change their pricing sturcture 'willy-nilly'. Ho ho, fuck me.
So, I carry around a couple of tin cans, and a reeealy long piece of string in the basket of my bicycle.
If I didn't have a landline, my home alarm system would charge me an extra $90 a month. And if my husband and I got a cellphone plan that covered the amount of calls we make each month, it would still be at least twice as much as our landline + long distance + pay-as-you-go cellphones are now, even without the extra $90.
I know that cell-only makes sense for some people, but it's certainly not a money-saver for everyone.
Am I the only one that thought that said "landmines"?
I don't own a cell phone, don't particularly want one and frankly don't need one. I don't make very many telephone calls and I'm never very far from a public phone if I really need one. That said, I use my landline for data purposes. I suppose I could do away with it, but that leaves the cable company as my only data provider and DSL is so much cheaper than cable (I also do not have cable television).
I still have one, but that's because I have no cell reception in my house. I would probably ditch it otherwise.
I work from home - it's great to have a reliable phone that doesn't run out of battery power for those crazy days when I have 5+ hours of calls.
Reliable is key to making working at home not seem unprofessional to the other people on my calls.
I don't mean to be snarky or argumentitive, but I haven't had my caffiene yet this morning, so please ignore any rude tone I may take, it is unintended.
In defense of cellphones:
@Bilby:
1)Wouldn't most visitors have a cellphone anyway? My wife and I have guests over to our apartment all the time (ages 1 to 85), and not once has somebody asked why there's no phone plugged into the wall. Besides, that can be fixed with...
2, 3, 5)Earlier this summer, my mother in law dropped her landline, but was concerned about being able to hear her cellphone throughout her house if she left it laying someplace. I picked up a GE Bluetooth adapter for $50 at Target, that plugs directly into one phone and/or sends the signal throught your home's phone system. The device is smart enough to pair automatically whenever she comes home, and wait patiently while she's away. It can even pair 2 cellphones at once. To select which you want to dial out on, simply hit *1* or *2* before you dial. Been a great little device.
4)I'm not sure if they have battery backup or something else, but the few times power in my area has gone out, the cell towers always continued to work.
@4 - Actually if you have repeated problems with your service you can get out of the ETF and cancel your service. There are many documented cases of people doing this over on the Consumerist. Likewise, any time carriers change rates for text messages or anything at all, your contract that you signed gives you the right to cancel without an ETF. It's called a "materially adverse change of contract" which allows any customer to cite the changing rates as a reason for canceling their services with no penalty.
I personally don't have a landline. I use my mobile and find it more reliable than the 80 year old wiring in my apartment, which works for my DSL only because I happen to be a block away from my CO. I think they're just a waste of money these days since my voice plan is the same cost as a landline. Then again, I'm a single guy who doesn't have someone at home who needs to use it since everyone else I know has a mobile. I like having my mobile even more given that when I move out of state I plan on keeping my same number.
The only reason we have land lines at the office is for life-safety and security reasons. The elevator emergency phone needs a fully traceable, reliable line, same with the fire alarm system. And they cost a lot less than the equivalent cell lines; we pay about $15-$20/month per line.
Other than Bilby's points, I can't think of anything for home use. For home alarm system, I have a program I wrote that sends me a text message over the 'net. I would use that. It's not as reliable as a central monitored alarm system tied over land line, but it's also free.
Why I still have my landline (downgraded to local outbound calls only):
--I have a VERY good rate on Verizon DSL; due to a promotional rate that was never switched off I get BUSINESS speed for $30/month (as opposed to Time-Warner cable which has diluted signal strength and is down a lot in my building)
--911 calls (medical reasons)
--Most of my credit cards, premium cards, etc. are linked to the home phone, as is verification for city services (ie housing complaints, which I have a history of due to a crappy landlord).
--While rare, power outages can really screw you if you're cell-only.
--My landline is part of a Verizon OneBill package; if I have a mix of any 3 services (in my case LL, cellie, DSL) I get a discount, PLUS I then get a 25% work discount. I have to say that my DSL has been rock-solid and I have only had to reboot my ancient Westell modem ONCE in SEVEN YEARS. Really. I have 9 different wireless dohickeys hanging off of my NetGear router and it's never sneezed.
I should modify my last paragraph, because it doesn't sound very useful: The program takes a "dry contact" input from the parallel port and send a text message based upon that input. I use it at work for monitoring our boilers; if one goes down, it sends a text message to the appropriate people advising us.
Haven't had (or missed) a dino-phone for five years now.
Why do people keep landlines? To add to Bilby's comments:
6) If you have a home security system that calls cops/FD/ambulance for you, you need a landline to connect the system to. I suppose there are ways to connect the system to a cellular line or VOIP, but they would negate the 911-calling advantages as mentioned above.
7) I'm not one who has had cause to worry about such things, but aren't landlines more "secure" in terms of ease of listening-in? I could be utterly wrong about this, but the perception does exist.
8) I know how to fix a landline phone, plus I've already got several handsets laying around. Why buy more stuff? (Yes, I know buying new electronic stuff is this page's raison d'etre.)
9) Per Uncle Ike, a body perseveres in its state of being at rest except insofar as it is compelled to change its state by force impressed.
We have a landline, but it isn't used for calls. I'm intrigued by the statement about Europe in the article; I'm in the UK, and we need the landline for ADSL. I thought this was the situation across much of the EU, since I had the impression that ADSL was much more common than cable over here. I might well be wrong, though.
I have a landline now because it makes my DSL service cheaper (by $50) than it would be with a dry loop. I didn't have a landline for seven years prior to moving into this apartment a year ago. We never use the phone but it gets telemarketing and debt collection calls for the person who had the number before us, so we leave it unplugged.
Most broadband services in the uk require you have a landline. i rarely if ever use it tho.
@20: In Germany, this certainly isn't true: I was able to sign up for DSL without actually agreeing to a landline. Of course, my house is wired for one, but I'm not paying for it.
@23: Fair enough. Guess this is just British Telecom's monopoly hanging on in yet another area, then. *sighs*
TJ S, by any chance do you remember which device you bought to connect in the house? I'm trying to get my wife to ditch the landline but she doesn't like bluetooth headsets and she doesn't like holding the cell up to her ear and wants to use a regular cordless. I've seen devices such as the DockNTalk but it's a couple hundred bucks.
Not that the audio quality of a landline has ever been spectacular, but every cell phone I've ever used has always been worse.
I think part of the reason we've not given up our landline, even though every adult passing through our house has a cell phone, is that cell phones, to me, are a less satisfactory communication method. Mobility aside, if I can't understand you, I don't want to listen to you. The same for cheap cordless phones.
But also useful is having a central messaging dongle for the family/household. And extensions. Both comfortable paradigms that will not shift without improvement.
Plus, the power-outage issue has made VoIP unattractive to us.
@John Brownlee - thanks, John. What a great site you have, keep up the good work!
@TJ S - no problem, snarkeyness not detected, you have some really good thoughts.
1) That's a good point. I was thinking more along the lines of babysitters / caretakers, and while both of those groups of people are certainly going to have cell phones, I can't guarantee that they'll have signal, battery charge, or know where I live, exactly. Even if someone had directions to the house, it doesn't mean they'll remember the street name and address in the middle of a paniced emergency. Same goes with regular vistors. With a landline that's not a big deal- you can pick up a landline, dial 911, and drop the phone, and you can guarantee you'll have at least a police officer, if not an ambulance at your door in 5 mintes.
2) I didn't know something like that existed, that's an awesome gadget! I remember from a long time ago seeing cradles for some phones that you could drop the mobile in, and it would charge the phone an connect it to the home wiring at the same time. Lacking some sort of cradle system like that, I don't know how consistantly a home-link system would be used for most people- and it wouldn't help you any for 911, unfortunately.
4) You're right, towers have typically batteries AND generators, depending on where they are. Doesn't help any if the landlines are down or too busy to make a call- someting that's more likely with a mobile phone tower then a landline. In the wind storm Ohio got hit with from Ike, I had many towers that would not make phone calls due to busyness or downed lines at switching stations, but the data / mms still worked. Wierd!
@frogmarch: Good points all! ... except for #7. A landline, being a simple analog signal, is really, really easy to tap into- essentially all of the extensions in your house are 'taps', and if I can locate the pair of wires that run to your house, I can hook into that anywhere between you and the central office you're hooked into, and you won't necessarily know. Of course, in the age of warrentless wiretapping, this doesn't really matter, as all government-sanctioned tapping happens at the provider level where it's irrellevant which type of phone your using. I try not to think about it. Mafia / nosy neighbor tapping is still easy between you and the CO on a phone line, and virtually impossible on a mobile phone (digital signal, etc). The first cell phones, with analog signals, were essentially just special 2-way "walkey-talkeys" and were subject to evesdropping with any frequency capable receiver, but those phones are long gone now.
~Cheers~ Bilby
I got the impression that the point to the article is that, increasingly, people are choosing to have either a landline or a cell phone (and often they are siding with cell phones) instead of having BOTH and IMO that makes sense given the "economic downturn"
I got rid of my landline several years ago and one significant reason was that I didn't see a point to paying $X every month just so direct marketers could call me and try to do things like change my long distance plan for that landline illegally or through manipulation.
I'm sure there will always be reasons why some people prefer/need landlines to cell phones (or vice versa) and plenty of folks can probably still afford both, but for folks who don't have those reasons or can't afford it, it's likely to become an increasingly binary choice (you choose to have a cell phone or a landline, not both and not neither).
The only reason I would, at this point in my life, get a landline is in order to profit from it.
I would publish the number in several major newspapers in an advertisement for my phone-pitch critique service, at 250 per hour or part thereof.
Anyone calling with a sales pitch would be invoiced - and possibly even taken to small claims court on a Wednesday afternoon.
--
But I prefer to make money through labour and actual valuable service, not through libertarian manipulation of the market - and I prefer to not talk to people on the phone, period.
I think the economy may be a factor. My wife and I just ditched our landline (which we only got in the first place after moving and having out-of-area cell numbers). We were looking for ways to cut the budget, and hey, $30 a month for something we never use, ever, is money that can certainly be put to use elsewhere.
They probably make sense for folks who work at home, or too old to learn how to use a cellphone.
I thought it said "landmines".
I'm an admitted luddite. Only went to touchtone, when my rotary dial died after 30 years. Have a cell (which is very handy for "time to take a nap" alarm), only because John insisted that I get one the last time I visited him, and it is great for traveling, or when out of the house.
I have a landline because it's
1. Free (retired Telco)
2. It will normally work during power outage, and isn't dependent on batteries. And a Rotary phone is the absolute best, it will always work.
3. In this area, 911 from a cell goes to the State Police, 911 from a landline goes to local Police and your address comes up with the call.
4. I don't feel or want to feel that I am constantly attached to the world. It is impossible to go anywhere, or do anything without seeing people attached to a phone.
5. It annoys John, when he calls and we don't answer, since he knows the cell is lost in the purse, or the sofa, and we ain't going to answer that either. If it's important - they'll call back.
Actually it's more likely that ll's are diminishing because the cost of upkeep and network expansion is much higher than the cost of cell. Certain Telco's have been attempting to sell off the Physical network to local companies and concentrate on the more profitable aspects of the business. Copper wires are not profitable unless you are selling them for scrap.
We have a land line for a number of reasons:
* because our cable service is unreliable enough that VOIP would be anywhere from irritatingly unreliable to dangerously unreliable. Our local cellular network tends to overload and shut down in an emergency and on holidays, cellphone batteries can die, and the frequent summer electrical storms play merry havoc with receptions.
* I have enough medical problems, as do various family members, that 100% reliable instant-on 911 that will 100% for sure direct emergency responders to my door even if all I can do is dial and collapse is a big concern for me.
* because we talk on a phone so little that any contract package we get would be extravagantly excessive, and we would not be able to sustain a pay-as-you-go setup without the phone becoming dormant. We don't text message and don't feel the need because nobody we know is dependent on text messaging.
* related to the previous point, we're in Canada, where a cartel of cellphone providers is doing their level best to soak us all.
* I find the idea of anyone being able to reach me by phone anywhere somewhere between ridiculous and terrifying. I'm antisocial.
Amusingly, if I get cellular access, it'll likely be for data access before it's for voice.
@25, 27: The device I talked about is one of these (GE Fusion Bluetooth Cell Phone Gateway). It must have been on sale when I bought it, because I'm sure I didn't pay more than $50 for it.
@34: Thanks!
While I do carry a personal cell and a work cell, I've kept a landline because I'm part of my company's disaster recovery plan, and if the world catches fire, cell phones crash, and my house is blacked out, as long as I hook my laptop to my gas generator and the fuel holds out (plus battery life) I can be connected over a modem and hopefully help pull us out of the wreckage.
the main reason we keep our landline is that unless we would pay a horribly outrageous monthly price, we get charged for both incoming and outgoing calls. We can control outgoing, but not incoming. With both of our jobs, we have people call us on a regular basis, sometimes just to check in or because they have a question that we need to answer. With our landline, we pay nothing beyond our fairly cheap monthly local-only landline plan. And it gets us a discount on our cell plan too, with our bundle. Junking the landline and upgrading to an unlimited call plan for the cellphone would be more expensive.
I´m keeping the landline for two reasons: My B&O landline set offers terrific sound, making even the most inebriated caller intelligible. And I have wall sets in other rooms, so I don´t have to walk around at home with my cellphone in my pocket.
But I guess the landline will have to go sometime..
@27 - Re: analog cell signals - I still pick them up regularly on a scanner... It seems that many tower-to-tower (something like that) signals are still on the analog... However, only one side of a conversation gets picked up and you lose it rather quickly when the person moves... There are still way more digital signals going through the waves, but the analog still has some presence.
Regardless, tapping wires is still much easier and more reliable.
#24: It's not just the UK from what I've seen, most of the USA is locked into having a landline if they have DSL service. I want to switch away from the jackbooted thugs that are Comcast, but I'd have to get a landline along with the DSL service form any other provider, and it's still more expensive.
I haven't had a landline in 7 years, but I do miss the days that I wasn't instantly reachable 24-7.
We have a landline, but never use it. There is a phone plugged into it, but it's switched to silent. Over the last couple of years, by the power of ignoring it at all times, we've even managed to get our parents to only phone our mobiles.
We only have the landline because it's required for ADSL in the UK. Work pays for my mobile, so I have no need to use the landline to save cash.
I occasionally pick up the reciever to go through and delete spam calls from banks and utilities, but other than that, I don't think I've used a landline deliberately at home for nearly ten years.
@39: Hmm, as far as i know the FCC 'turned off' all analog communication related to cellular phones, and auctioned off the bandwidth. Are you sure you're listening to a cell phone conversation and not just an (old) cordless phone? do you remember what range the frequencies are in that you're hearing?
You would also have to have a pretty old scanner to pick up the analog cell frequences, something like late-1980's vintage if i remember correctly.
Still, you've heard the signals and I haven't, eh?
~Cheers~ Bilby
I don't believe anyone's mentioned this. I cannot hear anything *at all* either on or from a cell phone. Everything, no matter how clear the signal, comes out garbled, and my ears tend to ring afterward from the strain. The same goes for wireless landline phones, though I can sometimes hear someone on those if they talk really slowly and carefully. I personally only use a corded (like those $5 ones at Walmart) phone simply because I can sort of, kind of, hear people on it. I'm not deaf, and can hear music on my iPod and normal conversation clearly. There's just something about the frequency where these calls travel that really garbles it for me.
I *used* to have a cell, back when I actually entertained the thought that someone would actually listen to me when I told them that it was for text only. Unfortunately, not even a voicemail message stating so kept them from a) calling me and, b) leaving angry voicemail messages telling me to pick up the phone (I'd have to get my boyfriend to listen to the messages for me). Also, it's apparently considered rude to text a landline *shrug*. I wound up dropping my $50/month plan, having to pay an early termination fee in the process.
I've been thinking of just using a TTY phone. Cop out, yes, especially considering that I can hear from some phones, but I think that's the only way I could actually use a phone full time.
My whole family's like this. When we were arranging to stay at the same hotel together, my uncle had to madly search around the city for a working pay phone. None of us could hear through a cell, so it would have been pointless for him to even use one. Texting would have been useful in this case, but he's old and the buttons for texting tend to be too small for him to read as well. Yeah, we're all screwed.
We have a landline because we don't get good cell reception at our house. (It sound strange, because we're dead centre in the middle of the town, but I can seriously pick up a signal in one end of a room and lose it if I walk left by about two feet.)
I keep a landline for "911" purposes but the only incoming calls I get are the rare marketing call and the more frequent political call.
Not to shift too far off topic, but how would the shift away from landlines alter the accuracy of political polling? It seems that all of that is done through landline calls. Can a representative demographic even be created with that strategy?
@42, You may very well be right now that I think about it, because my skewed sense of time wrote down "several months ago" as "still," because last I used my scanner I know I was picking up cell signals, which to me means that it's still true, but the more I think of it, the more I realize that a friend of mine has had my scanner for quite a while now, and I need to fix that...
However, as of the last time I did use it, I can pretty much guarantee you that I heard cell and not just 900mhz phones - high 800s, and making telltale glitch noises (which once you've heard, you recognize... they're painfully obvious to me when I listen to Scanner's music) on an older Realistic which was modified to pick up the range by the previous owner (not why I bought it, honestly I prefer not to listen to things that aren't intended to be listened in on... plus the abundance of digital signals gets really annoying really quick when you're scanning every freq.... I just haven't gotten around to cracking it open and unmodding it)
I contend that the phone is unique among tech devices: no other has devolved as much, in quality and reliability.
Compare the sound quality of a wired landline phone to any modern cellphone. Aside from water on the lines, how often do service interruptions hit wired phones?
DTV may not necessarily get glowing reviews for reception, but compared to NTSC, look at the vast improvement that ATSC has made. I wish I could say the same for phones.
I keep a landline because:
a) I am a student (poor) so it only costs 5 dollars a month on the California "lifeline" plan.
b) Some pizza places will only deliver to a landline connected house.
c) When I misplace my cellphone, I can call it from the landline and locate it while it is ringing.
d) 911 - they know where you are if you are having a stroke.
e) If I am bored I can try to talk the phone solicitors into unionizing and overthrowing their oppressors.
f) Clearer than my garbled static-laden cell-phone reception (live up in the hills).
g) A little afraid that those people who claim that you get brain and salivary gland cancer from the cell phone microwaves or whatever are right. So if I am having one of those 7 hour over-night marathon calls with an out-of-state friend, I'd rather be on the landline.
I am glad that others have mentioned sound quality... Some of my friends think I'm crazy because I complain about cell quality (which is flaky, and even when it's at its best, it's crap)... I don't think they've been on a landline for quite some time now...
I work for the US government [cringe], work from home and must have the land line to transmit computer data to Headquarters in DC. I have satellite TV which requires the land line in order to deliver the programming guide data. Since I live in a rural area my only access to the internet is via satellite. Because of the signal latency, VOIP is not a reliable option.
If I were the only one in the household, didn't have the government job requirement or the satellite restrictions, I'd drop the land line in a heartbeat. I have a pay-as-you-go cell plan that is reasonably priced, reliable, and works well with a messaging webapp service I use to manage phone calls. Haven't had a use for 911 since its inception.
With options for web communication like IM and email, why have an irritating device that summons you at the whim of someone else?
I actually called my local phone company yesterday to have my landline cancelled, and they talked me into keeping basic local service in return for a cut on my DSL rate. (I know that I could have gone with naked DSL, but my speed would have been downgraded; my other alternative would have been Comcast cable internet *shudder*.) I'll just turn the ringer on the phone off.
I live in Florida. When hurricane Charley came through a couple of years ago, my cell wouldn't work. At first it was no signal, then the battery died. With out electricity to charge it, it died.
My land line never went out in any hurricane that year (or other storm since.)
What's a land line?
@#18: Ditto here, Royaltrux. Going on 5 years with no landline. Haven't missed paying an extra $40/mo for nothing. Even when my city was hit by 2 tornadoes. Cell phones worked fine (unfortunately, because it meant I got called in to work disaster recovery all night).
The only situations I can see having one would be either in a remote location where cell service is spotty, or if I lived in an area where my kids couldn't just run next door (or to any of half a dozen neighbors) if mom or dad were incapacitated.
Hey there
I facilitate teleclasses and do phone coaching for a living. Most cell phones do not work for good podcast recordings.
I also live rurally and cell signals are sometimes weak, so a home phone (and the related expense) is required.
I am no Luddite, not even close, but in my situation, the home phone is the Thing That Works.
I look forward to a cell that can serve the same purposes; it'll come!
peace
Robert
www.roguetantra.com
www.coachingwithrobertallen.com
We use our landline for calling before 9 PM when the cheap rates kick in. Its more cost effective than raising the minutes on the cell phones. If somebody calls us, we just call them back.
Also keeps our brains unradiated during those long evening calls. We agree with the research that it takes longer to fall asleep immediately after talking on a cell phone.
Will eventually be moving to skype for this. Our bluetooth headsets work flawlessly on our apple laptops for skype calls.
I'm a pay as you go cell fan. I don't even like chatting over the phone. I'd rather see you in person if you're local. And I hate voicemail (leaving and receiving).
With a landline I have to pay the same bill every month no matter what I use. With a pre-pay cell phone I can buy as much or little as I need.
Well I don't have a cell phone and for reasons that some would believe border on insane. I don't know if you all remember that thing called the Patriot Act? Well it gives your government (if you're American) unbridled control to sic any and all agencies to turn your cell into a "roving bug" (even when it's off). I don't know what they are doing with this information but I could speculate on the ways this could be used.
And if you think that "of course someone isn't sitting at a desk listening to whatever mundane thing you're saying into your device", you're probably right. They are using ECHELON or one of the other classified intelligence programs designed to record any and all satellite, microwave, cellular and fiber-optic communications traffic, and then process this information through the massive computer capabilities of the NSA, including advanced voice recognition and optical character recognition (OCR) programs, it's simple to chart and graph myriad information on the general public, things that weren't unattainable before the technoage.
Like I said I don't know what this is for, other than to know us absolutely; play us.
I know that they can do the same with landlines, but my phone isn't always on my hip.
On a different note:
Where have all the pay phones gone?
As a reminder to those who equate cell phones with being 24/7 connected: they do have OFF switches!
Until we had to take in my father in law we didn't have a landline in our house. We have to have one now because he has a pacemaker and the company that tests it every three months says they cant test and tune on a cell phone. Dish Network also charges us $2.00 a month if we don't have a phone line (so much for satellite tv). I am very unhappy with our landline service, it is static filled and unreliable no matter how many times the phone company comes out and plays with stuff. We just keep a basic phone line ($15). I have had to place several 911 calls and I have never had a problem with them being able to locate my cell phone. I get far better service from my cell phone company where I live. I do have DSL through the phone company too because its the best available here but it doesn't require I have a phone line in service.
The main reason we keep a landline is that the two places we are most likely to need to make an emergency call are the barn and the shop. Both are metal pole buildings and both are completely opaque to cell signals.
Seconded: why pay to be harassed by telemarketers?
Just this month finally cancelled the landline -- but here in Hamilton Ontario something is really broken in Bell's origanizational structure -- a formerly rock-solid system has broken down all over town for about 5 years now. They're reluctant to come fix things, and often don't fix it properly. Dunno what happened...
A landline phone sounds better, waaaaay better, than a cell phone. That's really important to me. The way I see it, a cell phone is a step down from a land line. Here are my preferences...
Level A is a corded landline to corded landline phone call. My girlfriend makes me call her back on a landline because she likes the sound of my voice much better that way (c:
Level B is introducing any kind of cordless phone to a landline conversation.
Level C is a cell phone. Crappy sound, lots of drop outs, and you have to plug it it all the time.
Level D and a far distance behind is text. Stupidest communications invention ever.
I also use my landline for screening calls from businesses and people I don't really like talking to. I keep my ringers shut off and my answering machine volume at 0. I come home, the red light is on, I sit down with a pad and paper and return calls. Only people I really like get my cell phone number.
Or you can not have a landline for the reason my husband and I don't - Verizon repeatedly refused to come and fix our landline when it would go dead for 4 days to 2 weeks EVERY TIME IT RAINED (and I live in Pittsburgh, which is just shy of Seattle in climate) - eventually we got so tired of dealing with their service refusals and worse, not even crediting us for time without service because "well, we forward the calls to your cell phone! Isn't that swell of us?"
Lost the landline 6 months ago. Result: NO calls from telemarketers, political offices, or fundraisers (before we averaged 4-6 per week), no missed calls because we're not home often, and everyone who needs to know knows exactly how to reach us, and I never have to spend another minute of my life on hold with Verizon.
SteveD - its been 5 years since Ive had a landline myself
Although I thought that cell phones were for geeks, I dumped my landline in 2001. I did this because every evening I would get sales calls, at least 8 per night. Since then, I have only received one sales call on my cell. It was from my credit card company trying to sell me something. I informed them that they were using my minutes on my dollar and to never call me again. Cell phones are wonderful.
When I lived in Canada, I needed a landline for the simple reason that I didn't own a cell phone. There are still a few of us out there.
@ Analog Signals
Even if the signal is Digital, it can be intercepted and decoded into human speech. Carriers* weren't stupid, and used a semi-effective cypher known as A5 to obfuscate what was being said. Now, it seems that this encryption can be broken relatively quickly.
http://events.ccc.de/camp/2007/Fahrplan/events/2015.en.html
http://hackaday.com/2007/08/11/cccamp-2007-gsm-a5-cracking/
* GSM Carriers specifically, this is AT&T, Rodgers, O2, Vodafone, Non-US Virgin Mobile, etc. Other carriers have deployed other technologies (Sprint, Verizon, Virgin Mobile US), which may or may not be susceptible to decryption.
I keep a landline primarily as insurance in the case of community-wide emergencies. Cel phones are great if your car breaks down, but if the power goes out in your town cel towers and broadband are not going to work. The old landline does not need external power. However, if you keep a landline for this kind of emergency, be sure you have a phone that you don't need to plug in.
Think a major power black-out, a hurricane, ice-storm etc. Yes, sometimes the phone goes out, but phone service comes back much faster than electric power.
Is it worth $30 a month to guard against something that may never happen? I am willing to pay it.