Someday I'll have to explain to my kids the concept of a party line and how it wasn't nearly as much fun as the name would imply (especially after a fellow discovers girls). And, it's looking more and more as though my kids someday will have to explain to their kids that phones used to plug into walls.
According to a new survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than a quarter of the under-30 crowd already has adopted the all-mobile lifestyle, as in they live without a landline phone. (What a telephone-usage study has to do with disease control and prevention is anybody's guess.)
The Associated Press reports: "Overall, the portion of adults with only cell phones grew by more than 2 percentage points in the latter half of last year to nearly 12 percent, an expansion rate that began in the first part of 2006 and was double earlier rates of growth."As would be expected, willingness to cut the cord diminishes with advancing age, according to the study, although even 2% of the over-65 contingent has gotten hip to the practice.
The business world has also seen an all-wireless trend - witness this project at Ford, for example - although the momentum there has been slower, no doubt because most businesses are run by people who are older than dirt.
That CDC report also noted that 2% of adults have no phone at all, and, while I don't want to make light of the fact that most of them likely cannot afford one, I can't help but envy the peace and quiet they must enjoy. ... Might have something to do with the solicitation call I received during yesterday's dramatic Red Sox finish.
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Reasons to keep a land line
1. Mobile phone call quality sucks (and will continue to suck for the forseeable future).
2. DSL is the only broadband choice in some locales, and high-speed naked DSL is hard to come by.
Good points both
Although the foreseeable future is a fairly fuzzy concept. What's the quality/broadband landscape going to look like, say, 10 years from now?
I'm assuming you live in the
I'm assuming you live in the US or some other (mobile-wise) developing country. In many other countries, the mobile coverage is ubiquitous and call quality is excellent.
Oh, the point? Mobile call quality need not suck. And sub-24Mbps DSL is also getting to be so 20th century that I can't help feeling sorry for you.
I gave up my land line. I
I gave up my land line. I have two cellphones, one personal and one work, through competing providers. Both providers are excellent but all phone companies have problems... even hardwired ones... and if one of my providers is having trouble, the other is generally fine. Why should I continue to pay for a landline I never used except to receive calls from telemarketers?
Regarding broadband Internet: cable was great when it worked. In my area its reliability sucked and pushed me to DSL. DSL is available independent of voice service and allows me to choose my ISP. I'm not a fan of AOL or MSN type ISPs so choice was an important consideration for me.
Agreed
I loathe having a long conversation with someone on a cell phone because I know the talk will be punctuated with static and sound dropping out.
Cell phone coverage at my house is 1 bar... on a good day.
I'm still using dialup because the only option in my area is slow, overpriced cable.
Where am I? Less than 1 hour from Philly.
Dirty telephones!
What does the CDC have to do with telephones? My good man, perhaps you have not heard the sad story of the Golgafrinchans.. http://everything2.com/index.pl?node=Golgafrinchans
Paul McNamara: Stay away from Slashdot.
Paul McNamara, I suggest you get a different job.
Did we read the same thing?
The only thing I can see in the article that is not a restatement of the 3 studies he quoted or paraphrased is:
"And, it's looking more and more as though my kids someday will have to explain to their kids that phones used to plug into walls."
implying this may happen in 2 generations (about 40 years).
Are you so sure that a means of communication better than a telephone land line will not be found in the next 40 years that you can justify saying Paul is a liar a fraud and a shill?
Personally, I think it's more likely that in 40 years we will be using cell phone sized computers as high quality TV phones wirelessly connected to a space based communication network that is immune to terrorists, weather and physical signal barriers and uses more bandwidth than is possible to transmit through the land lines.
similar trend in India
There is similar trend in India too - what with the availability of mobile phone in all ranges and cheap call rates (less than landline!).
The bees boss, the bees
Cell phones may go eirrrkkkk-screeeech if it is found that they are killing the honeybees, forcing their use only in extremely urban areas only.