The home phone, now known as a ‘landline,’ used to be indispensable to almost any household.
Gone are the days of memorizing countless phone numbers—now all conveniently stored within your cell phone’s contact list. More people than ever are beginning to make the majority of their calls on their cell phones.
Beverly Swartz is the vice president (sales support) for Bell Canada Corporation.
According to Swartz, the percentage of landline use has “easily dropped by over 50 per cent.” But with cell phones becoming the dominant means of communication, what happens to its outdated counterpart?
A recent study done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States revealed that over 35.8 per cent of Americans don’t own a home phone. The study also states that despite owning a landline, one in six American households exclusively use mobile phones.
Economically speaking, it does not make sense to pay more for an identical utility that has become a primary target for telemarketing companies.
Swartz said “as a corporation, [Bell] tends to overcharge people for [landlines] now that there is wireless technology out there competing with them.”
People who have switched over from landlines to cell phones are already reaping the benefits. Not only do cell phone plans help save money on local and long distance charges, but wireless communication frees people up from their desks and precludes the frustrations in laying out new cords and cables associated with landline devices.
“One of the bigger economical benefits of not having a landline is that it takes up less space, but more so that it’s less expensive,” said Swartz.
However, there are some Canadian households who are holding on to tradition.
“We’ve found that most people still like [landlines] for the 911 services . . . Batteries will fade out but with a landline you’re still set without having to deal with more unfortunate cell phone packages,” she said.
Primus Canada, a subsidiary of Primus Telecommunications Group, Inc., commissioned a survey to find out how many Canadians had landlines.
The results of their survey revealed that regardless of the number of Canadians purchasing smartphones, 83 per cent of Canadian citizens chose to maintain a home phone line as well.
“The message we hear from Canadians is that their home phone gives their family and household a central contact point for those who are most important to them, such as family and friends,” said Rob Warden, senior vice president (residential services) at Primus Canada, in the survey’s media release.
“Home phones provide a very reliable means of communication that you can’t always get from a mobile phone, and clearly Canadians still value the personal touch of a phone call,” Warden said in the release.
A 2011 Statistics Canada study found that more households are abandoning their traditional landline telephones in favour of wireless phones only.
In 2010, 13 per cent of households reported they used a cell phone exclusively, up from eight per cent in 2008. This was particularly the case for young households. In 2010, 50 per cent of households in the 18 to 34 age bracket were using only cell phones, up from 34 per cent two years earlier.
Even though trends suggest otherwise, Swartz said she believes landlines won’t die out completely.
“I don’t think that it will ever become obsolete. Businesses still like to have them because of the flat rates often given out with landlines, and they make it easier to teleconference. However, I do believe that we will see a dramatic drop in its usage,” Swartz said.
