A Future Without the Landline?

Even though landlines aren't off the radar yet, some people
are already starting to feel the impact of their decline. As
you might expect, major telephone providers are among those
affected by abandoned landlines, but some other unexpected
groups, like pollsters and politicians, are feeling the
effects as well.

Don't feel too sorry for the telephone companies though.
While major players like AT&T and Verizon get from one-third
to one-half of their revenue from land-based subscribers,
they won't necessarily lose those subscribers; they'll just
convert them to wireless subscribers instead. So perhaps the
companies are right not to be concerned about the drop-off in
landlines, but the landscape is undoubtedly changing.

For instance, phone companies are starting to face
competition from cable companies, like Time Warner and
Comcast, who have lured customers away with their
Internet-based communication offerings. Even as their
landline subscribers decline, the phone companies still have
to fork out billions of dollars a year to maintain the
networks.

As the phone companies puzzle over their future business
model, pollsters are starting to wonder about their own
ability to continue in a world without landlines. Polling
organizations rely mainly on calls to landline numbers.
Federal law prevents calls to cell phones by the computerized
systems most often used by pollsters, so public opinion
surveys could start to see skewed results. This is especially
true since the remaining landline users tend to come from
a particular demographic. They're more likely to be affluent,
homeowners, over age 30 and white.

Politicians, too, have had to alter their game since many of
their targeted constituents -- young voters -- are likely to
only have a cell. With cell phones, whether you're dialing or
receiving the call you have to pay for it, so this method of
communication is off limits to campaigns. Political
candidates have had to get creative in how they reach voters:
pop-up ads, blogs written by the candidate and Internet
commercials are some of the newer forms of outreach.

Although cell phones and VoIP are increasing in popularity,
landlines will probably stick around until coverage and
security improve. At least one good reason to use a landline
is that emergency service providers often still have
difficulty locating where cell phone calls originate. So
while landlines linger on for now, don't rule out having to
explain what a telephone pole was to your great-grandkids.