Landline phones aren't dead, but they're on the way to obscurity with one in four U.S. households relying only on cell phones.
Four years ago, only 11 percent of homes relied entirely on cell phones, and 30 percent had only landlines. The rate of landline-only homes has since dropped by half, and in the second half of 2009 alone, the number cell-phone only homes rose by 2 percent, reports the Associated Press. Unsurprisingly, the cell phone-only route was more popular with renters and families under the poverty line who skip landlines as a cost-saving measure.
The numbers were reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which seems like an odd agency to be compiling such data until you realize that cell phone use can affect the way people call for help in an emergency. The AP also notes that the rise of cell phones has an impact on how polling groups and government agencies gather data, and of course affects the bottom line of telcos.
The communications industry is adapting to the shift. Both Verizon and AT&T have said that landlines are moving toward extinction, and Verizon Chairman and Chief Executive Ivan Seidenberg even said has even said that "Video is going to be the core product in the fixed-line business."
Cable companies, meanwhile, lure customers with so-called "triple play" packages, where the cost of phone, Internet and television isn't significantly higher than Internet and TV alone. In some cases the triple play is actually cheaper.
I'm not convinced that landlines will ever go away completely -- and if they do, they'll merely be replaced by VoIP. In a two-floor home with multiple family members, it's convenient to have phones situated throughout, so you don't have to carry your cell phone around everywhere. That said, I haven't been in that situation since I left for college nine years ago, before cell phones were even popular. Not once since then have I yearned for a landline of my own.
