The end of the land line?
Phones Without Homes - What's really killing the land-line phone business
Excerpt:
In the mid-to-late-1990s, even as the number of wireless subscribers exploded (Page 232), the number of access lines provided by incumbent local exchange carriers rose at a rate greater than that of the overall economy, with the number of lines rising nearly 24 percent from 142.4 million in 1992 to 186.6 million in 1999. Growth was driven in part by millions of people hooking up faxes and adding dedicated lines so that they could dial up to AOL. (Yes, kids, that's how we used to do it in the dark ages.)
Since 2000, however, it's been a different story. Wireless has continued to boom, up from 109.5 million subscribers in December 2000 to 233 million in December 2006, but the number of land lines has fallen somewhere between 4 and 6 percent in every year since 2000. The result: The number of incumbent local exchange carriers' access lines in 2006 was back down to 140 million, about the same level as in 1991 and off about one-quarter from the 2000 peak. The growth and convenience of wireless have played a role, and so, too, have the rise in broadband Internet access and the availability of phone service from cable companies and outfits such as Vonage and Skype.
Comment: We could do it! We are very close. We rarely use our land line. I think what is holding me back is that while Kathee and I both have cell phones, both are company cell phones. We can use them for limited personal use but I don't want to mix business with personal use.
I ought to ask friends of mine who have gotten rid of land lines how they manage it....seems to me that eliminating the need for this has a huge benefit in reducing the # of wires going into one's home, and a corollary benefit of eliminating the risks of lightning damage to one's phone and PC....
ReplyDelete...hmmmm......
Mr. Bubba, are you JP's son-in-law and you therefore "have" to read the blog? I'm glad you're here, no matter how! Somehow I feel as if I'm talking on the phone to myself (land line or whatever) because no one is on the other end. It's nice to see some interaction once in awhile and to realize this isn't just a one way conversation.
ReplyDeleteAnon, no known relation to JP except through Christ and through Japheth, if I remember my post-Noahic history right.
ReplyDelete(probably a little bit closer, given our shared northern european heritage, but you get the picture....not known cousins, let alone in-laws)