Majority Of Homes In The U.S. No Longer Have A Landline
According to 2016 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers say that at least half of all homes today in the U.S. do not have a landline.
It's estimated that at least 51 percent have said goodbye to their landline phones. And finding a landline now feels like it has become as rare as trying to find a public payphone or VCR. Many people today have tossed the landline aside and instead are opting for cellphones.
According to the same study, researchers also suggest that for those who are going wireless, they are also more likely to binge-drink, smoke, and be uninsured. They aren't sure why there is a correlation but they think that income might have something to do with it.
The CDC has been collecting this data for several years now as part of its National Health Interview Survey. It doesn't specifically ask why people might be giving up their landlines but it does seek to find out whether they are using one or not.
There are still some people who prefer to use a landline because they haven't become familiar with using a cellphone yet, and there are others who have stuck with their landline for various reasons.
Some say that it is required as part of their internet service, others say they get bad cellphone reception from time to time, and some say that it offers them cheaper package discounts to get the landline bundled with other services.
When it comes to the benefits that landline phones offer compared to cellphones, there are some differences. For example, in various emergency situations sometimes landlines would be working when cellphones would not. But not all landlines are the same, depending on their technology and configuration, so they all wouldn't perform the same in those various emergency situations. And not every landline guarantees emergency service in the event that the phone gets disconnected.
Also, when emergency services are using a landline to trace a location of someone who is calling for help, they can allegedly track the person much better when using a landline trace as opposed to using GPS to locate their whereabouts.
But thanks to phones that have become equipped with better GPS technology over the years though, emergency service agents these days say that they can sometimes locate someone within just a minute or two if they are using a cellphone to call for help.
There are pros and cons with both, and for many folks they just don't see the reason in keeping around a landline that might be costing them something like $500 a year or more for something that they aren't even using. But there will always be those who prefer to keep the landline around as a backup option for when their cellphone fails them.
Pics
Pinterest
CDC
imgrum
Bear Tales
Dave Coverly
Giphy
Sources:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2017/05/04/americans-hang-landlines-cellphone-homes-dominate/SLs1TOuSeh363MTh64FOPP/story.html
http://fortune.com/2017/05/04/cut-landline-phone-service/
https://www.statista.com/chart/2072/landline-phones-in-the-united-states/
http://www.govtech.com/dc/articles/911-Dispatchers-Use-New-Technologies-to-Quickly-Locate-Cellphone-Callers.html
http://www.cnbc.com/2014/05/07/why-calling-911-on-your-cell-is-not-always-a-good-idea.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/18/your-money/weighing-the-need-for-a-landline-in-a-cellphone-world.html
https://community.norton.com/en/blogs/symantec-cyber-education/will-my-phone-work-during-power-outage-depends
This is how we "evolved". I just check with my friend the other day and he said he doesn't have and I still do but I'm thinking of saving some money dropping it.
Even most of the so-called "land lines" are actually VOIP so they're not helpful in an emergency, when you loose power or when your router is on the fritz. Additionally the old-fashioned land lines required wire to be run, there are very few companies willing to run wires for a service that generates little to no revenue. Nice post!
I bought a house last year in out in nature where I couldn't get cell service unless I drove down the road a ways. I couldn't find a phone company that could install a landline in my home though. It was weird. From my understanding so many people prefer cell phones that companies discontinued the service. Even big companies like AT&T couldn't do it. I finally was forced to get a cell phone booster so I could use a cell phone. I had no clue they discontinued landlines in certain places like my super small town.
that's really interesting, thanks for sharing:)
Landlines are definitely becoming ghosts of the past.
This post has been ranked within the top 10 most undervalued posts in the first half of May 06. We estimate that this post is undervalued by $9.64 as compared to a scenario in which every voter had an equal say.
See the full rankings and details in The Daily Tribune: May 06 - Part I. You can also read about some of our methodology, data analysis and technical details in our initial post.
If you are the author and would prefer not to receive these comments, simply reply "Stop" to this comment.
An Illinois law just passed that allows AT&T to end landline service. Why does the government (rather than the market) get to pick winners and losers?