Why I worry that landlines are endangered

What I'm about to say may make me seem like a Luddite or curmudgeon, but I'm disturbed by the news that an increasing number of Americans are reachable only by wireless phones.

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 Vonage Internet phone at my son's apartment when he was a sophomore at college. But neither he nor his roommates ever used it, even though it came with free domestic long-distance calling. Whenever I tried calling it, I got no answer because they never bothered charging the battery on the cordless phone connected to the line.

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.

And of course there are those frequent times when the cell signal is just weak. The answer to "can you hear me now" might be yes, but the sound quality might still be awful.

Phone is more personal but less familial
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?

[Dave_Briccetti]

You didn?t mention the fact that digital cellphones sound absolutely wretched. You probably remember the days of analog cell phones. No latency, no compression artifacts. These days, I frequently ask people to call me from a landline.

[ThePrairiePrankster]

For about a year and a half I had no landline, just a cell and it worked pretty well. However, I was on a job hunt and some employers specifically asked me not to call them on a cell phone. They said the quality was not acceptable. I was able to make appointments with family and friends who had landlines so I could make these job interview phone calls and later got a landline with my dsl service. I still do not use the landline much, no one calls me on it, despite the better quality.

[Kristin_F]

My roommate and I only use cellphones. So does my mom. I suppose landlines do offer more reliability and security but right now, (for my roommate and I), we just can't afford to have both. It sounds like a weak argument but paying for a service we would rarely, if ever, use just seems like a waste of money.

Also, I've had phone interviews and the quality was always fine. It's not like I'd go walk down the street or hang out in a busy restaurant as I interviewed though so I think location might have a lot to do with sound quality.

-kristin fontanilla

[Understarsidream]

Thank you for writing this. I have several friends who have gone over to cell phones only and each of them has had problems. Lose your phone? It can take a couple days to get a new one. Forget to charge it? You're completely our of reach without even access to voicemail. And those aren't even counting bad reception or problems with getting a signal in some really high traffic areas. Cell phones are great but people should still have a land line.

[thinkevenharder]

You're not a Luddite or curmudgeon, but perhaps you could write a column focused on the various substantive issues in the changing voice communication market. Here are a few issues to consider:

The local land-line based telephone companies do tend to provide more reliable service in the home than the cellular providers. However, even land lines are note 100% reliable. Lines get cut, quality is sometimes spotty, and there are other outages that affect local phone services, however rarely. What is the real and perceived reliability difference?

Land line-based phones have historically been prone to overload from too many callers at the same time just as cell phones are. Is that still true?

Land line voice transmission tends to be superior to mobile, in my experience. Is that really true, or is it just an effect of lower quality cell phone service in some areas?

Annoying fundraising/marketing/political/research calls are pretty common on land lines. If the CDC want to survey me, they can send me snail mail and/or point me to a web site. What's the ideal scenario for someone doing that kind of research?

My land line does a lousy job of reaching me when I'm at a friend's house, at the grocery store, at work, etc, but perhaps I'm looking at it wrong: Should my Phone Number be able to reach me by whatever phone I have available, cell, VoIP, land line?

My fully wired land line is very unlikely to pose a cancer risk. What are the risks for cordless land line phones, versus cell phones with and without bluetooth headsets?

I think you're on to something here; I'd like to see more in depth on these questions.

[fg8578]

Land-lines are indeed subject to cable cuts, downed telephone poles, and very rarely (e.g. Katrina) power outages sufficient to knock out even phone service. But my guess is, if you compared the ratio of unusable or degraded service minutes to total usage for land-line vs. cell-phones, cellular would come out far worse. I simply cannot recall the last time I had noise issues with my land-line, vs. "can you call me back" when one or both parties was on a cellphone.

You say land-lines are "prone" to overload. I agree landlines are subject to blockage, but can't recall even a single time when I didn't get dial-tone when I picked up a receiver, or gotten a fast-busy. I'm not sure what the equivalent condition is for wireless.

I think landline service provides superior transmission to cellphones because telcos are required by regulators to meet certain transmission requirements -- cellphone service has no such requirements.

If cell numbers were published in directories (online or otherwise), they too would be subject to junk calls. Thank goodness they aren't but somehow the junk marketers are still able to find them!

Finally, I think the whole issue of cell phones and cancer is bogus. I've yet to see a single study that unequivocally established such a link.

[cvaldes1831]

I wish US cellular reception quality was better and service was cheaper. In much of the rest of the world, it's a heck of a lot better. In many cases, these are countries where landlines are atrociously expensive and cellphone charges only hit the caller, not the recipient.

The subscription-based postpaid model that U.S. cellular providers really hurts the consumer in the end.

[petec9999]

Like Larry Magid I also use Ooma for my VOIP line. Without it I would have dumped my landline a long time ago. The quality of calls is very good and the service gives me free local and long distance. It also simultaneously rings my cell phone and vacation house, gives me web access to my voicemail, does some caller blocking, etc. I'm hoping that someday it will let my cellphone automatically switch to my broadband/ooma box when I'm in range letting me save on cellphone minutes.

[BosHawk]

I would pay $10 per month flat fee if landline is bundled with my cell phone. Landlines are valuable to wireless firms because they keep people off the cell towers.

[mishmash0101]

Landlines are history. We won't miss them. They clutter the landscape, are much more faulty that you believe, and the landline system overloads just as easily as the cell network.

If you really need a phone at your house, add another cell onto your contract for $10 a month and leave it on the kitchen counter. That should make you feel better.

[jofssie]

Also dropped my landline just after switching to a NET10 prepaid phone. It was the first phone that I found had really good coverage at my home, workplace and all my usual haunts ;)
A landline would only be of use about 10% of awake time every day. My cell is with me 100% of the time.

[jimofoz]

I can't believe someone would still want them around. They're dangerous and hard to find and cause lasting problems all over the world..

huh? .. landlines. oops, sorry, I thought you said landmines. I like landlines too.