Greg's Corner

Most US homes ditch landlines in favor of mobile

In a survey released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for the first time since the advent of the telephone, more than half of US homes have eschewed the once required landline in favor of mobile phones. This really should come as no surprise, the surprise really is what took everyone so long?

Back in the days that even predate television, landline phones were once hard-wired into the house. There was no unplugging the phone and once it was installed the phone couldn’t be relocated anywhere else in the home. In addition to that, even when the phones advanced to the point where they could be unplugged and relocated, you could only get your phone from the phone company itself. You didn’t even get to own the phone, instead you were charged a monthly rental fee. Service itself was often difficult to get and if you didn’t meet certain financial requirements. the phone company wouldn’t even allow you to have service. That’s not even mentioning they were the company that invented the “We’ll be there sometime between 1 and 6pm to install service”. The service was prohibitively expensive too if you had to make long distance calls.

Conversely, in today’s market, you can go to just about any store, including gas stations, pick up a relatively cheap mobile phone and be up and running with service in just a few minutes. Rates are relatively cheap plus you get the added benefits of texting and internet. The only real advantage to having a landline is if you ever need to call 911, emergency services know exactly where you’re calling from. However, mobile phone technology is advancing to where that should no longer be an issue.

While we may take our plastic fondle squares for granted, it’s amazing to take a moment to reflect on just how far the technology has come in such a relatively short period of time.