May 12, 2009
Reasons To Keep A Landline
There's No Denying The Decline Of Landline Telephone Service, Especially Among The Young; Is It A Good Thing?
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A new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that more than 20 percent of American homes have only cell phones and another 14.5 percent of homes received all or almost all calls via cell phones even though they had a landline. The CDC says that it's the largest six-month increase in reliance on cell phones since it started the survey in 2003.
I'm not against cell phones. I started carrying one around when the first luggable models became available in the mid-'80s. I never go anywhere without my BlackBerry. But I still have an old-fashioned "POTS" line ("plain old telephone service") at home in addition to a VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) phone from Ooma.
My POTS line has corded (not just cordless) phones, which means they'll work even if the power fails. I just feel more secure knowing that there's a hard-wired phone near my bed in case I suddenly need to call 911 or in case someone needs to get hold of me when my cell phone isn't handy, turned on, or charged up. As a parent of young adults, I am acutely aware of the trend away from landlines. I couldn't even give my kids a wired phone.
I installed a
I also offered to pay for a line for my daughter and her husband but neither of them wanted it. In fact, until they switched to cable, they had a phone line as part of their AT&T DSL package and never bothered plugging in a phone.
One reason I want my kids to have a landline is because cell phones are not 100 percent reliable. True, they get good service where they live, but I can't count the times I've called and gotten no answer because the battery was dead or because they left the handset in the car or at work or simply couldn't find it. When a call goes to voice mail immediately, that's often a clue of a dead battery or being out of range.
I just feel more secure knowing that there's a hard-wired phone near my bed in case I suddenly need to call 911 or in case someone needs to get hold of me when my cell phone isn't handy, turned on, or charged up.
Beyond mobility, cell phones have changed the nature of what it means to call a phone number. Until handheld cell phones, you would call a place rather than a person. Even car phones were hard-wired to cars. Back in the day, you would "call the house" or "call the office" hoping that the person or people you wanted to reach would pick up. Often that meant a different social dynamic.
When I called home from college I never knew if my mom, dad, or sister would pick up, and I talked to whoever happened to answer. Now it's not possible for me to call my daughter and son-in-law's house. I have to call them on their individual cell phones. Gone are the days of a boy calling his girlfriend's house only to have her father pick up the phone and put him through an inquisition before turning the phone over to his daughter. The phone now is more personal but it's less familial.
Some people live where there is poor cell phone service, or none. But now there are solutions for them, including the Samsung UbiCell, which picks up cell phone calls via the Internet and broadcasts them throughout the house. T-Mobile offers its T-Mobile @Home service which routes cell phone calls through a broadband router even if you can't get service over the air. And there are cell phone extenders like the zBoost YX510, which amplifies weak signals.
The fact that my twentysomething kids have shunned landlines wouldn't surprise researchers at the CDC. More than 2 in 5 adults ages 25-29 live in households with only wireless telephones, according to its data. As age increases so does the likelihood of having a landline. Adults living in poverty were more likely to be living in households with only a wireless phone.
One reason it's of interest to the CDC is because many health surveys are conducted by telephone and if they call phones with landlines they'll miss 1 in 5 households.
Of course, there are advantages to cell phones, most notably the ability to reach someone wherever they are, including at home or at work. I just wish cell phones and the people who use them were more reliable. I wonder if they'll ever make one that never needs charging and can't be misplaced?
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- I wholeheartedly support maintaining a landline for all residential homes. Unfortunately, it is a losing battle in Florida and the legislature is not on the side of consumers. I see it as a safety issue. Apparently, the legislature and governor view it as an issue to be decided by the telecommunications industry. For another take on this, visit http://www.tboblogs.com/index.php/thinkoutloud/comments/no-dial-tone/ and http://www.telecompetitor.com/att-stresses-need-for-wireline-home-phone/
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- A "charged " up cell phone is with you everywhere you go and in todays world that is necessary for both business and security.A land-line is fixed and worthless away from your house.Like it or not but line based phones are a thing of the past that will fade into history.
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- free land line --- majicjack
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- When the local cell towers came down or were damaged by a hurricane one year and a major ice storm a year later, the cell phone service was gone. I had a landline and was able to make and receive calls with no problem.
Sometimes, an older technology can have significant benefits over a new one, - Reply to this comment
- Landlines only stay powered for about 12 hours after power goes off, even quicker if everyone is using one and drains the batteries at the box. Keep a Cell phone, and a cell phone recharger that can be bought at any store now of days. Ditch the land lines, you DO NOT need them.
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- When fast modems came along I made the decision to switch to a cellphone and nothing else. I keep the oldest one as a spare, just in case, and for calling 911 in an emergency. Both stay charged at all times. When the electricity in my apartments goes out, and when who knows what caused it to go out, my landline wouldn't work anyway!
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- There are arguments on both sides; the landline doesn't require recharging, doesn't depend on the electric company, etc. Cell phones allow 24/7 access (if you choose to keep your phone on!), portability, and features that many people have come to need (some didn't even know they had that need!).
As far as expectations go, other people don't put expectations on me; they will most surely be disappointed!! I am under NO obligation to ba accessible 24/7, or even 18/5. You get me when you get me, and only if there's an emergency should anyone expect to get me immediately. My only emergencies involve family, and they know multiple ways to get me. We have arrangements in place.
I control my life; a phone does not. - Reply to this comment
- Alright!!! I have been waiting for a topic like this to comment on...
I am an employed, lower income American who has a landline with a corded handset and a cordless handset with good ole' "pokey Joe" dial up internet, AND NO CELL PHONE. The REAL issue here is not convenience, reliability, "coverage", availability, or anything else mentioned in the original article or the previous BLOG entries. (Is that what I'm doing here - BLOGGING??? Oh joy!) The issue is Self-Centered Importantism. "You ain't nobody until somebody loves you. And if they can't call you when they are on the John you are at the grocery store, then nobody loves you."
Some people's justifications for cell phone usage:
- "They're more convenient to use than having to find a pay phone and to remember to save a few quarters to use them." Yes for most phone calls. But when it comes to crisis, the cheapest most reliable source of phone serivce is still a landline. Use your brain. CONVENIENT and ALWAYS READY always carries with it HIGHER COST AND MORE VULNERABILITY.
- I love this one: Some parents say that they feel more secure knowing their child has a cell phone incase they need help or a ride. This may SEEM like a security, but it is a fallacy because a cell phone DOESN'T HAVE SUPER POWERS LIKE A GOOD OLD FASHIONED PARENT TO KEEP A WATCHFUL EYE ON THEIR OWN OFFSPRING!!!! Some parents are writing off their responsibility to KEEP A WATCHFUL EYE ON THEIR CHILDREN, and instead put their responsibility of watching their children ON THEIR CHILDREN. What consent do children have as to what they can or cannot do or where they can or cannot go legally? NONE!! That is SUPPOSED to be their parents' responsibility. But when parents let their children go and do whatever, relying on their children to "call and tell them" when someone is violating their personal space or their boundaries, the parents are putting their children at risk for abuse and even kidnapping and death, all because they trust their children to "do the right thing" and to "call if you think you need help". This is just plain denial. Denial of parenthood and every common sense thing a responsible parent should have active in their minds.
Sure cell phones carry some measure of convenience and availability, but not security. These terms are not one in the same.
- And why are camera phones available to children under 18 years old? If you can take a photo of a private body part and send it over the internet via a camera phone, then you should have to be 18 years old to even operate a camera phone. That should be the law. I just can't believe it's legal for anyone under 18 to operate a camera phone. If it's only legal for an 18 year old to be a consenting adult regarding posting their sexual photos on the internet, then that should be the case for operating a camera phone. This just isn't right.
- Anyone who relies soley on a cell phone puts their identity, credit, and virtually their ability to participate in 21st century life at risk for identity theft. My point comes back to conveience and availability = vulnerability. Anyone who can steal your cell phone can get access to your identity, if they know how.
So now my rant is done. I'm keeping my landline and I'm staying home to answer whatever calls I feel like. And when I'm in line at the grocery store, you can rest assured that I won't take a cell phone call and talk about stuff in a loud voice which you don't want to hear or even think about anyway.
Hey! Here's a good idea about cell phone etiquette; Create jobs by training Public Cell Phone Security Guards to ensure people only use cell phones at appropriate times and places to secure the public's privacy of staying out of others' business which they don't want to know about!!!!
Oh, and what about Freedom of Speech? How about Freedom From Unwanted Speech???!!!
How about securing privacy instead of blabbing it to the public??? Seems that privacy is becoming public and public is going out the window because you can access nearly anything about anyone anywhere...
..except at your own home. Heck, who is home anymore???? "Home is where your cell phone is....er....was.... a second ago. Dang, I had it here somewhere......."
I'm off to pay my landline phone bill online via dial up internet.
Oh, and if you are in a crisis near my apartment and your cell phone battery goes dead, just knock on the door and if I'm home, I will gladly let you use my landline phone. But only if you have a quarter. Hah! Gotcha!
MetroNut - Reply to this comment
- The main reason I don't have a landline is that I am a college student who doesn't have a permanent home yet. After leaving for college I lived in the dorms for two years, where it makes no sense at all to have a landline, especially when you switch rooms every year and have to come home during the summer. After that I lived in an apartment for a year and then moved to another apartment. Now I'm in graduate school and living in another apartment in a different city. Having to change my phone number every year would be too much of a hassle! Maybe when I know I will be living somewhere for more than 2 years I will get a landline. Pretty much all the other college students I know are in the same situation.
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- Have a land line and DSL. No for me. My friend does have one. I have had this set up since 06. I think there is still a place for the phone of old. like it as if I go out. I shut the lad to notebook and go. Computer is wired.
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- Haven't had a land line in 7 years and have not been plagued with spam phone calls in all of that time. Most of your arguments against are debunked by maintaining a charge in your phone. I'll never have a land line again. There is no place for it in my life.
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- Something tells me the problem isn't with the lack of a land line, the problem is with the author's kids. I bet if they did have a landline they'd just switch the ringer off.
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- My landline came in really handy a couple of times in 2001.
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- This guy is a fully bulls...t. VOIP in dome isn't used by college student means he/she was busy with their toys--cellphones! Cell services are not perfect but I live without landlines for years.
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- I got rid of my land line years ago and never missed it....Why pay for 2 phone lines?
This guy must be on the payroll of the phone companies. - Reply to this comment
- WastingtonDC: More to the point, the writer just does not get it. When my children laughed at us for having a landline, we dropped the service. Since that declaration of freedom from spam calls, we have had dinner, without spam calls, 100% of the time. We have had two or three misdialed calls, in those several years, always from nice folks who apologized, and never called again. Yes, there are times we don't have a cell phone turned on, like the writer's kids, it may be because we are away from the charger room, or because we do not wish to be disturbed. As he does not get it, perhaps it is a mercy, that his children do not have to explain their failures to answer every ring.
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- I'm one of those Luddites that has VOIP at home but no cell phone (my wife has one). One of my joys in life is a lovely commute along windy two-lane roads, uninterrupted by phone calls. I fully understand the advantages of cell phones, and that the time may well come when I regret not having one, but over the years I have come to really resent the always-available, always-on expectations of others that accompany cell phone ownership. Yes, I know you can turn it off (if you remember), but it still doesn't get rid of the expectations of others that you will be available when they decide to phone you. I frankly like telling people I don't have a cell phone when they ask me for my cell number; it's one good way of setting boundaries.
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- Not convinced. It's too expensive to keep both a cell and a land line these days.
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