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Landline Holders Increasingly Older, More Affluent
netbuzz writes "More than a quarter of the under-30 crowd has decided you only need one telephone — and it sure as heck does not plug into a wall. The trend towards an all-mobile lifestyle is accelerating, according to a new survey. Besides younger people, lower-income people are also more likely to have cut the cord. And while businesses may be a bit slower on the cell-only uptake, there appears to be little doubt at this point that the traditional landline will be joining rotary dials and party lines as a relic of the telecommunications industry."
Oh yeah, I'm over 30. So what.
"The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes" - Winston Churchill
Hmm... the article mentioned businesses switching exclusively to mobile services.
:-)
It would be interesting if a wireless carrier introduced PBX-esque switching and operation. If service is good enough (a factor I'd assume holds most people back from ditching the land line), I'm sure a lot of small businesses would forgo a PBX-based telephone for a more easily set-up wireless based system.
I'd certainly get a cell phone with blinky lights that indicate a call coming through on line three!
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That's fine if that's what you value. Me, after many stubborn years, I've learned the fine art of the two hour phone call. And that takes a quality phone line where you can hear the other party breathe. Otherwise, it's just multitasking distractions. Yuck. I do too much of that at work to want to run my personal life that way.
"More than a quarter of the under-30 crowd has decided you only need one telephone -- and it sure as heck does not plug into a wall.
I'm in that category - I own a mobile, but unfortunately, here in Australia, you need to rent a landline from the monopoly PSTN provider (Telstra) if you want to have broadband internet (ADSL anyway).
So I have a landline I never use.
God they're filthy (Telstra) - hopefully we'll have a change of Government soon & get rid of the current spineless Prime Minister John Howard - who can't stand up to Telstra.
Correct me if I'm wrong. If phone lines aren't hampered with having to carry voice communications, will DSL be able to grab more bandwidth?
I probably would have cut the cord a long time ago, but every time I start looking at cell phone plans, I just get mad. Especially with the various taxes that are always listed separately. Look, I don't care if you have to pay this tax, that fee, your company's hydro bill or for your CEO's lunches, just tell me what the bloody thing costs.
:p)
Besides, don't DSL companies still charge you the $10 or so for a landline?
Anyone care to suggest a cell phone provider in Toronto that won't get my blood pressure up (too much?
ClutterMe.com - easiest site creation on the Net. Just click and type.
OK, I admit that I never caught the cell phone bug. I have one, but it's provided by work, so what model I have is their choice. I got one for my wife for emergencies and occasional use, and we talk with each other on it, but that's about all.
So how do you handle extensions? You know, someone calls you, and you want to say, "Honey, pick up an extension." so you can talk together. Do you just 3-way the call?
And how do you handle guests? Do you simply assume that if they want to make a call, they just use their own cell phone?
I certainly have nothing against cell phones, I jut never really felt a pressing need.
Oh, and how do you handle devices that need to "dial home" periodically? (ReplayTV box, DirecTV box, etc.)
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
I converted to cell-only not because I'm always on the go or because of any cachet, but to avoid the constant barrage of telemarketer and solicitation calls I received at my land line. Getting on the "do not call" list was only marginally successful; most of the telemarketers who kept calling claimed they were exempt for some reason or another. It was a constant annoyance, and still the #1 reason I refuse to get a land line again.
If we do go all-cellular, I wonder if the legislation about telemarketers being unable to call cell phones would change. I'm praying it won't -- I've been enjoying the peace and quiet, quite frankly.
Paul McNamara, I suggest you get a different job. I suppose you were paid for the nonsense you wrote.
Cell phones are nowhere near as reliable as land lines, and all VOIP phones are worse. Not only that, but cell phone providers and VOIP providers save money by being unreliable, and there is no evidence that they plan to change their behavior.
I think you know this. That makes your lies fraud, in my opinion.
I guess your handlers call themselves NetBuzz because they think they are good at advertising. But they aren't. They and you are just liars, in my opinion.
Everyone who needs reliable telephone service has land lines, and there is no evidence that will change in the near future.
Anyhow, we don't want your kind corrupting our discussions of technology on Slashdot. Stay away.
A single telephone line that serves more than one customer. Most often used in rural areas where it's not economical to install multiple lines. Privacy is nonexistent and I'd assume congestion is high.
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Party lines died out in the 60s, I believe. Back in the day, it was easier for the phone company to run a single pair through an entire block of houses. So if you had a party line, it basically meant that you and your neighbors shared extensions. Everyone had their own telephone number, and the phones would ring differently based on which number was dialed.
Needless to say this meant that every time you wanted to place a call, you'd risk interrupting your neighbors' conversations. It was cheaper to hook residential phones up this way, but obviously most people preferred to pay a bit more for their own line.
That is sensationalist crap, the thing about landlines being obselete. Maybe young students or people with apartments, but come on. There are huge advantages to a landline. It's more reliable and jamproof, and if you want an extra phone you pay $10 at the grocery store instead of hundreds (and repeating that every few years as they get obsolete). The voice quality is better and it doesn't run on freaking batteries. It's on the wall so you always know where it is and you don't lose it in the couch cushions. I can't imagine having a house without phones on the walls. What the hell do you do if you have kids and you have to hire a babysitter? Leave her your cellphone? Then what do you call home with? You can call her cellphone from yours but then there's still no number for the household, say if the neighbors want to tell you there's a fire next door or a prowler. And so on.
We can do both already. It's just a matter of keeping the airspace clean enough for the radio waves to travel.
And THAT is why it will be a while before businesses get rid of their lines. You want the cleanest voice connections you can get. Yo don nt c st m rs o ha e t dea ith al s re ki g p.
I ca 't wa t f r th en ire worl to be o c ll lar te eph nes. he ell lar s rvic an ca l q ali y ha gr dual y g tte wor e to th po nt t at m st of the ente ce ust e gu ssed ro c ntext.
I look forward to guessing the meaning of all my calls in the future
Dekker Dreyer
How about the slow adoption rate being because many businesses have their own PBXs and want to control their voice mail? For many companies, switching to wireless phones simply isn't a viable solution and probably won't be for a long time. Sure, they're more reliable than they used to be, but they're still not as reliable as POTS. Keeping track mobile phones may also be difficult. Example: My mom's work phone still had service over 6 months after she quit her job.
Additionally, many companies would probably be reluctant to outsource their voicemail for security and confidentiality purposes. Besides, do you really want to answer work calls wherever you go? Talk about taking your work home with you. Work phones should stay in the office. If employees want to answer calls on the road, maybe their employer should consider some kind of call forwarding functionality. Juggling multiple phones for home/work/etc is not something I'm interested in.
A party line is a single telephone line that you share with your neighbors. They were common in rural areas of the U.S. before WWII, probably becuase they were cheaper than dedicated phone lines (remember, back then each line was on a different physical circuit, and calls were switched by human operators).
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
I don't have decent cellular coverage in my house, and I live one mile from downtown Palo Alto in Silicon Valley. Five cellular stores (not counting the Apple store) within walking distance, and I have to go to a window to get more than one bar on the phone. Gigahertz RF doesn't go through trees, you know.
Cellphones will not completely supplant POTS land lines for some time. I never use my cellphone if a real phone is around. The call quality is better, the calls are cheaper, and as far as battery issues are concerned there is just no comparison. You don't even need a battery at all with POTS. What makes POTS a pain in the ass is the separate monthly bill to pay, since most people now have a cellphone bill anyway. Plus, there is Rotary Phone Disorder to contend with. People get attached to the technologies they're familiar with, if they think they work well enough, and they won't want to waste time learning how newfangled technology works. Old people especially seem to get stuck to the form of telephony they're used to. My own grandmother was still using a rotary phone just a few years ago until I found her one of those art deco touch tone phones with the buttons in the same positions as the old rotary dial finger holes.
Until I can get a cell signal down here in my parents basement, I've got no choice but to use a landline.
*sigh*
When I was a kid we were on a party line with eight other families. If you wanted to use the telephone you would pick up the receiver and listen for someone talking or listen for the dial tone and then dial the number.
One had to be very careful what was said as often other neighbors would listen in on a conversation. Most conversations were brief and old people still have brief conversations from habit even though they might have a dedicated line today.
Our telephone number was 226.
If an emergency was occurring and other people were talking on the party line then you told them that it was an emergency and they would hang up so you could dial.
One needed to practice good citizenship but it seemed that each family had their own opinion of what that constituted.
And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make
Do you live in Aus? and if you do, how, unlike the rest of the country, are you getting away with not paying the telstra tax?
Here telstra owns the landlines, to use them for ANYTHING you have to pay line rental, the cheapest way to pay line rental is a basic telstra home phone service.
Unfortunately, here in Australia you *do* need a phone service on your line to get an ADSL connection, because Telstra are idiots.
I'm an early adopter for technology I want (home theater in 1988, camera phone in 2003, PDA phone in 2005, etc.) and a luddite for technology I need (taxes -- pencil and paper until this year; taking notes at work -- pencil and paper; home phone -- land line until VOIP can be powered from telephone line current).
Speakeasy (my provider) assures decent QoS. Of course it still relies on a solid internet connection - and that's absolutely what it's been for me with Speakeasy in the 4+ years I've been with them.
I realize not all VoIP providers do this, but if you're willing to do a bit of investigation, you'll find that there are a few companies that do provide it. They won't be cheap, but if you're tired of the crap customer service provided by the Bells (the new AT&T), it's a decent, valid option.
What cracks me up are the radio ads that go something like "Are you tired of your complicated cell phone plan? Well sign up for Verizular's new anytime family direct, and enjoy 1000 free anytime minutes for only $26 per month to the three people you call the most on even numbered weekdays. What could be simpler! Rates subject to change, void where prohibited, network maintenance surcharge and cost recovery taxes apply...etc"
It's the same as credit card promotions, grocery club cards and coupons, mail-in rebates, etc. You and I may realize how pointless all these offers are, but so many people love playing the game and thinking they got a great deal by finding the perfect plan that was made Just For Them. Nobody does anything unless there's some game aspect to it - warfare, terrorism, finance, dating, business, taxes, politics, you name it. We are so desperate to play games that we'll create them even for things as ridiculous as cell calling plans.
And more importantly for the industry, the pricing games allow them to avoid to avoid their service becoming a simple commodity. If the plans reflected their actual cost structure they would simply charge per bit, and fierce competition would quickly drive everyone's margins to nothing. But as long as they keep it a marketing game of adding ridiculous "value add" services and tricking you into complicated pricing traps, they can keep gouging.
first po...
damn this dial up internet connection!
'Cause let's face it: "Landline" just sounds cooler than, "Cellie."
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
Also, in Australia calls to Mobiles cost the person calling you, so if you have no landline, all those people who want to chat to you for hours on the phone would need to pay huge rates per the minute. Compared to a local untimed call which is, what, 30 cents or so.
In the US isn't it the case where the receiver pays? It was something like that for txt messages etc when I was over there, thereby making mobile spam horrid as you ended up being charged for receiving spam, whereas here in Aus if they spam you it costs them, not you.
As such, we can't get rid of our landline really...
... specifically at the socioeconomic numbers. The article mentions how hard it is to survey people with only cell phones (being left out of polls, and such), and then cites the study of households indicating that people with only cell phones are disproportionately lower income - more than just age would account for.
How accurate is this? (I obviously need to go find the original survey). I know my own circle of friends - perhaps thirty people, all mid-20s, all professionals with good incomes and mixed race, and I can't think of a single person who has a landline. Maybe we're all on the cutting edge of pacific northwest young-adult culture, but the survey numbers from this study seemed way low.
--------------------- -me, Crusher of those who are Foolish (don't be foolish)
In addition to Australia being big with a small population making the infrastructure expensive to update, Telstra are not run by the government and don't mind being idiots because they own all the copper. Why unroll decent services when they can get away charging decent money for crap?
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
Our cell 'phones don't get a good signal at our house (seem to work OK elsewhere, though), but the land line works.
Long distance is cheaper on the land line, even with the flat rate overhead and fees.
What do you get charged for a cell 'phone conference call? How much more is that than the cost of picking up an extension on a land line?
Cell 'phones for emergencies are really, really cheap. Ours are less than $7 USD per month, and we don't even have the prepaid kind.
If there were two- or multi-line cradles into which I could drop cell 'phones at home, then answer an extension, I would be more inclined to even consider going cell-only, but the system would have to accept 'phones from whichever carrier I choose to use AND the 'phones would have to be portable, too. The lock-ins on cell 'phones are at least as obnoxious as anything the "Bell Gang" have done, besides the fact that you're dealing with a "Bell Gang" subsidiary or affiliate with most cell carriers.
I'm not interested in being available all the time, or talking while driving, eating, or whatever. People who need to contact me have my work and home numbers and can leave a message if I'm not there.
While I'll agree cell phones can be useful, their (general) necessity is overrated.
Now stop TXTing on my lawn!
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Obviously you didn't read the thread leading up to this that mentioned quite specifically that they were discussing Australia. Telstra and Optus provide Cable access, and to some extend TransACT does in the ACT as well. Most people are too dispursed from the centres in order for Cable to be a viable option though.
... the other option a lot of people have kept on is ISDN.
Most people have the choice of ADSL (up to 1.5Mbps if you are lucky) or Satellite
The only place where ADSL connection speeds are not a joke are in the Metropolitan centres, or wait - just the major cities. I live less than 100km from a major City (Brisbane) in a large regional centre and I can't get access to anything over 1.5Mbps thanks to Telstra's monopoly (although there are plans in the works to upgrade at least one exchange in this town sometime later this year. Here is hoping. The last time they said this was happening was in 2004).
But back to Phones... out here it is not viable to go Mobile. CDMA is being replaced by NextG (A lame excuse for mobile 'coverage' that just doesn't cover). I am 25 and I rely almost entirely on my Landline and Answering Service. My Mobile is a work mobile, used for people to contact me and for me to contact people in an emergency. I find Mobiles obnoxious and annoying, and prefer to not answer the phone at all. I only wish more people would shut their phones up or ignore them - I think we'd be a happier society.
Consequently, I heard that Australians are one of the worst cultures for abandoning current tasks the moment a phone is heard ringing. At the dinner table when my parents were last over the phone rang and they said "are you going to answer that?"... I said "Why? I'm eating... it can wait". Phones are one of the most intrusive things in our society and I think it accounts for a lot of dissatisfaction and aggravation.
But enough ranting for now...
Cheers, Chris
Analogue phones are extremely low bandwidth. Like 4kHz. Really, not kidding. It's just analogue audio, and not very high quality at that. To eliminate any interference, DSL upstream starts at 25kHz and goes up to 138kHz, downstream is 138kHz up to 1104kHz. So if you totally eliminated the voice and used its spectrum, and you assumed that you get total efficient use out of it, you get like 18% more upstream.
Landline Holders Increasingly Older
So that explains the grey hair I found this morning! It's my damn landline.
"A week in the lab saves an hour in the library"
I live in Australia, and was living in New Zealand when they privatised Telecom NZ (before the Telstra sale). I would have thought that the Australian Government would have taken some lessons from the Telecom NZ sale, and kept the copper network. If Telstra, and any competitors, were able to get access to the copper network equally, then competition would have provided enormous benefit to the Aussie household.
In NZ, Telecom (who 'own' the copper network) were saying that it costs them as enormous amount of money to maintain it - when Clear (their major competitor) offered to take this loss making asset off their hands (for a dollar), Telecom refused - I wonder why!
There are numerous reasons for a landline besides the obvious...
Fax Machine (yes, they still do come in handy...If I need to send off a hardcopy on the fly)
TiVo/DirectTV
Children at Home (who don't need cellphones until they can pay their own bills)
A big factor though, is a contact point for credit card companies, banks, public service, co-workers, any subscription services, and basically anybody else who you find a need to have contact with, but don't want disturbing you when you're out to dinner, on a date, or anywhere/anything else when you don't want to be available for calls from any but a select group of people.
I hate the collapse of manners that has accompanied their arrival - people chatting on the phone whilst being served in a shop, taking calls in restaurants, talking about nothing on my commute ("I'm on the train") and so on. If people were more considerate in their use, I'd be more keen on getting involved.
I also value my private time and don't feel a need to be contactable 24/7.
Finally, being slightly risk averse, I don't like having a small microwave transmitter next to my brain for prolonged periods of time.
I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
I still use the actual physical cell phone as a PDA. I did not like paying $50 for something I only ever really used at home. I didn't like using it when driving and don't like people who do. I have a job where a cell phone isn't a good idea. I never road trip. And it got terrible reception where I lived. Why pay $50 for something that blows connectivity wise from where I live? I reverted to a $20 a month landline. I feel no need to go back to a cell.
On Mother's Day, my mom was asking about how much I pay for my cell phone bill and how many telemarketing calls I receive on a daily basis. She seemed truly interested in ditching the landline. So I had to remind her that without a landline the security system installed in their house will not function properly. Needless to say that ended that conversation. Security systems, such as ADT, require a house to have a landline. So until they change their practices and allow for VOIP or some other telecommunication avenue, the landlines will not be going away.
I calculate that around 2012, nearly all folks will be using POTS, if this excerpt from Wikipedia is correct:
"The last solar maximum was in 2001, and on 10 March 2006 NASA researchers announced that the next cycle would be the strongest since the historic maximum in 1958 in which northern lights could be seen as far south as Mexico."
Aren't we just one or two Coronal Mass Ejections from having all our satellites (and cell service among others) go kerflooey?
All the cell phone plans suck. First of all, I don't want a phone from the service provider for various reasons (avoiding lock-in, ability to change when I want, getting one to my liking). I'll buy my own phone and then choose a provider. Second, I don't want term plans. I want to just sign up, get competitive per minute rates, and pay month-to-month. I don't even mind pre-paying. But the pre-pay services now are overly expensive (it's a plan intended to rape the lower economic classes).
As soon as a cell phone service provider figures out they will be very competitive with a "plan" that provides the lowest, or near lowest, per minute rates, reliable coverage, and no term period for those who "bring your own phone" (BYOP), then I'd be ready to cut the cord. In fact, I may well just cut the cord and not get any cell service at all since everyone who does call I don't want to talk to or listen to anyway.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
Call Quality ? where ? When the radio channels begin to fill, you can (or can't) hear the phone co increase compression to a point of ridiculousness. While they can claim they didn't drop the call, it's so bit-starved that I can barely hear what is going on. Add to that various chops to the call and dropouts, and I save the wire phone for the really serious conversations. I find that my ham radio, or my CB, is often clearer than cell phones. If a guy from the other side of the world is clearer on a fairly simple ham set than my wife from across town, then the company has to do better. OOOh, I forgot...I live in the US where cell phone companies can't be easily changed by sim card.....darn.
Besides younger people, lower-income people are also more likely to have cut the cord.
I guess it depends on where you live. I live in Vermont, and my landline costs me ~$35 a month. A single-line cell would be $50 for a bottom-of-the-barrel plan, plus another $20 for a line for my wife.
I'd definitely do it if I had the scratch, though. Not sure how that would effect my having DSL.
I enjoy the stammering non-overlapped, halting, jerky conversations on cell phones it is soooo modern. We might as well of gone back to hitting each other the face with sticks.
"HI" - long pause - "hey". "where - WHERE ARE YOU are you at?"
WHAT?
long pause - "you there?" - long pause - "YES"
Attached to my belt right now is a Motorola Razr; pending the iPhone, this is the finest wireless telephone made. Reliable, decent sound quality, durable for a cell phone.
And yet I prefer to use my Western Electric 500 -- with a metal dial -- because it's more comfortable and sounds better. A flip-type phone and an mp3 file of a real telephone bell help somewhat but aren't the full deal.
The mobile-only lifestyle is quite popular in Europe, and not just with the under-30s. But since mobile reception is so much worse in the US, I find it hard to believe that an all-mobile lifestyle will really take hold, at least without some major renovation of the infrastructure.