Landlines

September 18, 2008 - 1:56am — Bibliofuture

Blog entry at the NYT:

Snip! Nearly One-Fifth of Homes Have No Landline

By the end of the year one in five American households may well not have a home phone line. That’s the conclusion of a new report by Nielsen, which says that already 17 percent of homes rely entirely on cellphones.

This trend has of course been brewing for a while, but the tough economy is pushing more people to snip the cord.

Indeed, the effect of the growing number of people without home phones is starting to ripple through various corners of society. Of course, the phone companies need to confront a declining base of income to support their century old web of copper wires. And the trend is causing trouble for political pollsters, aluminum-siding salesmen and the other banes of the dinner hour.

Full blog entry here.

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Comments

September 19, 2008 - 3:58pm — mdoneil

I will always keep a POTS line

I will always keep a plain old telephone service line. The primary reason is that my phone number is easy to remember because the last four digits are my first name. I've had the same number for a decade and a half. I recently switched to a message rate service for $9.95 per month. I can make 30 outgoing calls - above that it is 10 cents per call. I don't make that many calls from home. With taxes and fees it is exactly twenty bucks a month.

Another important reason is that I live in Florida and inclement weather frequently knocks out power or telephone. I have a mobile phone from T-Mobile, an Iridium phone that I seldom use as I only get ten minutes per month included in that, but I do take it with me when I go to areas that may not have mobile or landline service. I took it to Haiti and on hurricane adventures. My mobile or my landline generally works -if one is out I can usually count on the other at home.

Another important reason I keep a POTS line is my phone line powered emergency light . If my power goes out I can read on the phone company's juice.