Does anybody remember pay phones? You would have to watch an old Superman cartoon to remember the old rectangular booths that could once be found on almost every other street corner. In my time, those were the days when I would always make sure to carry a few quarters in my pocket just in case I needed to call someone.
The thing that connected all these street phones, as well as that new Princess phone with the light-up dial, which was first introduced by Bell System in 1959, was a landline. This refers to a phone that uses a metal wire telephone line for transmission. In 2003, the CIA reported that there were somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.263 billion main landlines worldwide.
Are landlines becoming obsolete? If you watch TV shows from the 1960s, 70s and even 80s, you will notice that every time the main character needs to contact someone, they will either find a pay phone or ask if they can use someone’s phone. That was the only way to contact someone other than waiting to meet them in person.
Today, we have mobile devices that can keep us in touch with anyone, anywhere at any time. Thanks to the evolution of Voice over IP (VoIP) you do not need to rely on your cell phone, since you can now take advantage of applications such as Skype (News - Alert) to make Internet calls from a tablet or laptop; all you need is an Internet connection.
One county that has noticed a significant drop in landline usage is in Kentucky. Six years ago in 2009, Shelby County was taking advantage of nearly 14,000 landlines. When you take into account the fact that the U.S. Census counted close to 15,500 housing units during that time, you will notice that it represents a landline in 90 percent of residences.
Jump ahead five years to 2014 and that number has dropped by 60 percent to just under 9,500 dwellings using landlines for their communication needs, which means that only 36 percent of Shelby County is still using landlines. Although there has been legislation proposed that would allow for some deregulation for phone companies, they have argued that they cannot invest in high-speed Internet phone services to provide VoIP calling if they continue to maintain outdated landlines in unnecessary areas.
Oddly, the opposite occurred on New York’s Fire Island after Hurricane Sandy hit the region. Instead of laying down new landlines, Verizon (News - Alert) wanted to convert the island to a completely wireless network, but the residents complained and Verizon was ordered to replace all the landlines. This seems to be more of an exception rather than the norm.
As VoIP continues to mature and companies develop applications to take advantage of its features, more people are relying on their mobile devices as their only means of communication. There are many rural areas where it is not practical to have landlines. Many locations in emerging markets have no way of setting up a hard line system, so the telecommunication companies are focused on setting up wireless access.
According to AT&T (News - Alert), basic landline phone service has decreased by as much as 50 percent over the past 10 years, while cellular service has increased by more than 300 percent. I am not sure why this information comes to us from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, but they did report that in 2010 the number of Kentucky adults who were living in a home with only wireless phone service jumped to 31 percent.
Daniel Hayes, who is the director of public affairs for AT&T, commented that each month nearly a half million Americans drop their traditional landline service and opt for a wireless or VoIP service. This is a number that is paralleled in Kentucky, with 8,000 residents moving to wireless or VoIP each month.
It goes to show that VoIP is really starting to gain traction and making inroads on a global level. If we use Shelby County as an example, this appears to be the direction that most people will go in to keep in touch with others all around the world.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson