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The Decline of the Landline

Posted by timothy on from the daddy-what-were-buggywhips? dept.

Death Metal writes "The phone network is thus not just a technical infrastructure, but a socioeconomic one. The more Americans abandon it to go mobile-only or make phone calls over the Internet, the more fragile it becomes: its high fixed costs have to be spread over ever fewer subscribers. If the telephone network in New York State were a stand-alone business, it would already be in bankruptcy. In recent years it has lost 40% of its landlines and revenues have dropped by more than 30%."

9 of 435 comments (clear)

  1. Land Lines by IMightB · · Score: 4, Informative

    I might have kept a landline, if it weren't for the fact that the only calls that I ever got on it were Telemarketers.

    1. Re:Land Lines by adamstew · · Score: 4, Informative

      It is illegal for any telemarketer or any organization to call you on a cell phone for commercial purposes, including charities, etc. unless you already have an existing current business relationship with that specific business ("marketing partners, etc." don't count). This is also true for 800 numbers, pagers and any other type of phone line where you might be charged to receive the call.

      The penalties are pretty stiff too. You don't have to ask them to remove you, you do not have to register your number with any private or government list. If they call you, and you don't have an existing current business relationship with that company, you can sue them for $1500 in statutory damages in small claims court. Courts have found that you can name both the telemarketing firm and the business that the firm may be calling on behalf of in the suit.

      This fine gets extended to companies where you might have an ended business relationship with... i.e. you call your cable company and cancel your account, you've just ended the relationship. They can call you to finish business (i.e. past due collections, etc.) But if they call you to try and give you a special offer or to sell you anything, you can sue em.

      From the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) of 1991: All unsolicited commercial telephone calls "No Person May" "Initiate any telephone call (other than a call made for emergency purposes or made with the prior express consent of the called party) using an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice," "To any telephone number assigned to a paging service, cellular telephone service, specialized mobile radio service, or other radio common carrier service, or any service for which the called party is charged for the call;"

  2. Re:why would you ... by Cro+Magnon · · Score: 5, Informative

    Why do I keep my landline?

    DSL
    My security alarm needs it
    The sound quality is far better than any cell I've ever had
    During my 5 day power outage, my landline still worked

    --
    Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
  3. Re:why would you ... by digitalunity · · Score: 4, Informative

    You don't need voice service on your landline for DSL. If Qwest told you this(they tried to tell me this), they lied.

    Newer GE Security alarms support cellular networks, although this does increase your monthly monitoring bill by $30 or more.

    Got me there, hard line voice quality is very good. As for reliability, I've never had a long term outage on any cell carrier or a land line so I can't differentiate the two.

    --
    You can't legislate goodness. Let each to his own destiny, by will of his freely made choices.
  4. Re:why would you ... by BigGar' · · Score: 3, Informative

    Or this: http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/cell-phone/8928/
    From the wonderful people at ThinkGeek

    --


    Shop smart, Shop S-Mart.
  5. Re: In Houston after Hurricane Ike by colinnwn · · Score: 4, Informative

    In my brother's area and my parents area, landlines stayed up for a day or 2 longer than the cellphones. But cellphones came back several days faster than the landlines. And some areas had cell service longer where the telecoms had put in sufficiently large batteries and generators (which isn't required for cell sites).

  6. Re:No surprise by John+Goerzen · · Score: 3, Informative

    Where is this cell phone with less downtime?

    I can think of ONCE in the last ten years where a landline hasn't been working. And that because the entire town was knocked out due to a severed cable (and cellphones were knocked out too.)

    Cell phone outages are a daily occurrence.

    And what problems for the maintenance guy? It's two pieces of copper. What is mysteriously failing for you all the time?

    Landlines, for me, Just Work.

  7. Re:why would you ... by colinnwn · · Score: 3, Informative

    There are streaming digital formats specifically designed to carry the human voice clearly, with low latency, at obscenely low bitrates. As another poster said, MP3 is a terrible format for this. The problem is telecoms have lowered the bitrates beyond the prudent level for decent quality, so they can squeeze ever more calls onto the same pipe.

  8. Re:why would you ... by treeves · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's funny that *having* to replace phones every few years is seen as progress when 30 years ago a phone could last twenty years and work right every time. I still have a twenty-year old phone that I keep around for when the electricity goes out at home.

    --
    ...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.