Landline Households Shrink Dramatically

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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May 9, 2000
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A newly released survey has found that over one third of all households in the US no longer rely on a landline based phone system. The tipping point is looming where telco based hardlines will be pretty much a thing of reference to the past.

What’s more, just under 16% of American households said they “received all or almost all calls on wireless telephones despite also having a landline telephone.”
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First of all, I seldom use my landline. On top of that, it serves as a conduit for telemarketers to spam me. And finally ATT charges me 30+ each month and 1/3 of the bill is tax and surcharge. Why would I pay that kind of money to have telemarketers to harass me every day?
 
I had a landline and 7 mbps DSL. I was paying like $90 a month and $40 of it was for the phone + taxes that I never use so I got rid of the phone. Of course, I also don't have a cell phone so I guess I'm phoneless, but whatever, at least no one can call me. My family is okay with e-mail for most stuff.
 
When I was a cable guy a lot of people only had land lines for their security system because it was cheaper then going the wireless route. Other then that it was only old people and people who basically got it for nothing because they bundled other services.
 
I had kept mine only for the billing number for my cc. I'd use it once in awhile to order a pizza. Dumped it for a Google Voice number.
 
NSexton said:
When I was a cable guy a lot of people only had land lines for their security system because it was cheaper then going the wireless route. Other then that it was only old people and people who basically got it for nothing because they bundled other services.
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+$30/mo + Taxes for a landline here, or +$10/mo for wireless were my options. So I went wireless/cellular on my alarm. I think I last had a land line in 2007-2008, because I had DSL. The last time I relied on a land line was back in high school for rare calls from the couple friends I had. :p
 
The only people I know that have it, are tucked away somewhere in the country where there is little or no cell signal.
 
That would be annoying if you'd bought a load of furniture and got back from the store to find it no longer fitted because you had a landline. :eek:
 
Parmenides said:
Isn't it law to have a 911 line?
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I believe any land line connection can reach 911 regardless of you paying for the connection or not. That is you always will be able to reach emergency services even if you don't pay your bill as long as there is a connection. But you by no means need a line by law.
 
NSexton said:
When I was a cable guy a lot of people only had land lines for their security system because it was cheaper then going the wireless route. Other then that it was only old people and people who basically got it for nothing because they bundled other services.
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MagicJAck+ or Nettalk can replace phone lines for security systems, or cell based signaling.
 
niconx said:
yet our telcos are still deploying new copper installs...
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What’s more, just under 16% of American households said they "received all or almost all calls on wireless telephones despite also having a landline telephone."
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This is why they're still deploying new copper installs... 5 out of ever 6 households still receive calls on landlines.
 
I had a landline for a while last year because it was cheaper to get a cable/internet/phone bundle than justa cable/internet one at the time. I never actually owned a phone for it, but the line was active. I couldn't even tell you what my phone number was :rolleyes:.
 
I still use a beep/pager and a landline everyday, but I use my wireless phone more.
 
markkin said:
I still use a beep/pager and a landline everyday, but I use my wireless phone more.
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How much do pagers cost these days?

I had an inactive one of these as a kid. :)
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I haven't had an active landline (except the one experiment with MagicJack a few yeard ago) since 2001. I also read an article recently that I think applies to this situation as well, the biggest concern for cable companies isn't the few people here and there that are leaving cable so much as the next gen that never had it to begin with and are getting by without it. I think the telcos are going to really struggle as the next gen really starts to own there own places and simply never signs up.

As for why the telcos are still laying copper to each new house, it is my understanding that if they "serve" a certain area then they are required to lay the lines. This is becoming an issue for those that can't even get a large number to sign up for the DSL service that would traverse those lines. My current situation is that the telco doens't want to invest it a closer sub-station to my neighborhood so the best speeds I could even hope for are at most 3Mb/s, yet they still want to charge me as much or more than the cable company does for the 10Mb/s service.
 
I'm waiting for the survey that examines internet usage being up like its some profound and unfolding revelation.
 
Switching over to VOIP couple months ago was the best thing I ever did. Why? Because I'm able to dramatically reduce calls from telemarketers. I went from 3 to 5 calls a day to maybe 1 every couple days. All because I have unlimited blacklist feature. It's peace and quiet now after coming home from work.

As to why have VOIP instead of just cellphone, I run a small side business from home and I also need to be able to fax sometimes.
 
I have a "landline" through FIOS. I have NEVER plugged the phone in and do not plan to. Let that thing catch all the trash and telemarketing calls that go to the numbers sold out by the credit card and other companies.
 
sfsuphysics said:
I believe any land line connection can reach 911 regardless of you paying for the connection or not. That is you always will be able to reach emergency services even if you don't pay your bill as long as there is a connection. But you by no means need a line by law.
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This is changing, because so many people don't have service, the costs to provide a dialtone for 911 or to order service on an otherwise dead line are enough to justify going to state public utility commissions to get permission to turn off services after some amount of time. Varies by state, but I wouldn't depend on this for your ability to contact emergency services.
 
Parmenides said:
Isn't it law to have a 911 line?
Click to expand...

i believe its more along the lines of whatever phone service you have (cell, VOIP or landline) must have 911 service by law. doesn't say that you have to buy anything if you don't want to. i know that for a while here if you got cable service with the phone service through the modem then they would lock the cable connection to the modem 'so that you can't disable your 911 service'. bullshit for sure, but 911 service is still taken seriously i guess.

i've been trying to ditch my landline for ages here. i have DSL service through a provider that doesn't have bandwidth caps so that means i have to have the landline right now. sure there's a dry loop with VOIP service but for the cost of the dry loop added on there really isn't much point. i'd love to go cable and run VOIP through it and tell bell to get lost. unfortunately my provider can't offer cable service to do so in my area yet and i really don't want caps. so i play the waiting game :(
 
az_max said:
MagicJAck+ or Nettalk can replace phone lines for security systems, or cell based signaling.
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No it cannot. POTS has charateristics quite distinct from VOIP based systems. They are not directly interchangeable.
 
I replaced my landline with an Ooma unit...had it for a few years...before that I spent a year with Magicjack.

It's nice to have a home phone number that doesn't waste your cellphone minutes if it's a bill collector or whatever, or holding on a phone call for customer service.

Just not a 'real' landline that you pay a lot for. :)
 
I don't have a landline. I never did--when I moved out (2011) there was no reason to have one.

I doubt I'll ever get one. Most of my lengthy calls *cough parents cough* are strategically placed during "unlimited" periods, and most of my friends communicate via text, IM, or voice chat.

So some months I use 5 minutes (of 450).
 
still interesting that the landlines can still call 911 even if your not paying for the landline, not sure if the UK does the same thing(do not fansy testing calling 999), mostly everybody has an mobile phone nowadays even if its PAYGO (uk is very cheap for PAYG)

again in the UK its mandatory to have a landline if your on BT/openreach customer, as you Have to have an Connected number so you can have ADSL or FTTC even thought its not required to have an connected number for internet to work over an copper wire (i seen some places have no number connected when they moved offices but ADSL line still working but they cut you off 2 weeks later due to not having an landline number)

on CABLE (DSL? uses DOCSIS3 coax) if you on an 30mb broadband option(the slowist they offer) you really do not need an land line as it adds £3-4 to the cost, but if you get TV and broadband you do need to get the landline to get the Tripple deal offer as it end up costing more without the landline

i do have an landline number but that is flat divert to my mobile phone for the last 4-5 years (but i need it for business)
 
GreenMonkey said:
I replaced my landline with an Ooma unit...had it for a few years...before that I spent a year with Magicjack.

It's nice to have a home phone number that doesn't waste your cellphone minutes if it's a bill collector or whatever, or holding on a phone call for customer service.

Just not a 'real' landline that you pay a lot for. :)
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Thank you for that post. That Ooma unit thing looks to be what i'm looking for. Yes I'm one of the unfortunate ones to still have a typical landline with TWC :(,.
 
I haven't had a landline since 2001, I find myself surprised when someone says they still do.
 
My family hasn't had a landline ever since we moved to our new residence in 2008, so that's about 4 years. My mother talks on the phone alot, so she gets the PagePlus unlimited talk and text plan for $40/month. She is congenitally attached to her phone and it's convenient for her to not have to juggle multiple phones (such as a landline and a cell phone).

Me, I only talk about an hour every month so I get the prepaid option, $80 for 2,000 minutes. My mother and I together pay around $47/month and it handles all of our talking needs. :)
 
I have a landline, but could probably get away without it. I just always had a landline so I'm just used to having it. I consider it my "permanent number" while cell is more for calling out than getting calls. I don't want my bank calling me about my mortgage when I'm in church or at work or something. Land line is also considered higher priority/more critical in a state of crissis such as mass power outages.
 
I still have a landline because I'm sure as hell not paying for 4 cell phone plans, lol

Cell phones for me and the S.O., and the two kids can use the landline which is $71 a month (with 25/5 Comcast internet.)
 
Edit from my last comment: That is to say my company pays for my cell phone (grandfathered unlimited AT&T voice/text/data) and my S.O.'s company pays for $60 of her $99 a month Verizon plan. So technically we're only paying $39 plus $71 Comcast per month as opposed to giving everyone in the house cell phones which would be much much more.
 
For the last couple years, I had no land line. I thought I did not need one since everyone left in the household had at least one cell phone each.

I went back to having a land line because of shitty call quality. At times both ATT and Verizon are so bad in my area, that I can not even recognize my own mother's voice when she calls. My guess is that the infrastructure needs to be upgraded, because sometimes the cell call quality is pretty good. It is always good on the land line.
 
Honestly, I'd probably keep a landline active but here in Canada, our phone company insists raising the price by 2-3$ every year. It's about $30~ just for a basic, local calling phone line with.... wait for it.... TOUCH TONE. Yep, we'd still pay for touch tone.
 
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