A new report just released depicts landline telephones as something of a lost art. The report, from Daily Finance, was completed surprisingly enough by the US Center for Disease Control (CDC). The group has been gathering ten years’ worth of data to keep in contact with those people being tracked for health research purposes, and in the process has built comprehensive results as to who uses which form of communication.
Forty-one percent of Americans live in homes that only use cell phones, with no landlines present; this number is composed of 39 percent adults and 47 percent children. Millennials composed a wide range of those surveyed. The youngest set, those ages 18 to 24, were 53 percent cellular-reliant, having completely eliminated landlines from their homes. That amount increased with those aged 25-29; 66 percent of them no longer use landlines. The older the age range, the more likely landlines were to stick around — 48 percent of 35- to 44-year-olds, 31 percent of 45- to 64-year-olds, and only 14 percent of those aged 65 and older had gone completely cellular. The numbers overall, however, show a real decrease in the presence of landlines when cellular options are available.
Part of this trend may be cost-related; it can be expensive to keep up both a landline and a mobile line, what with monthly fees and data rates. However, VoIP options are often cheap alternatives to covering both needs. Indeed, some VoIP-specific devices can offer landline-like service via mobile, with unlimited home phone calling over the Internet. Low monthly fees with the one-time purchase of a console can make VoIP the perfect in-between option.
If you’re attached to your cell phone but hesitant to cut the cord on your landline, VoIP options may offer an ideal compromise for you.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson