{"id":19049,"date":"2023-03-24T23:11:23","date_gmt":"2023-03-25T06:11:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/?p=19049"},"modified":"2023-03-24T23:11:23","modified_gmt":"2023-03-25T06:11:23","slug":"in-defense-of-the-landline-telephone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/?p=19049","title":{"rendered":"In Defense of the Landline Telephone"},"content":{"rendered":"

It won’t play Candy Crush, but an old-school phone could improve your life in other ways.<\/h2>\n
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By Stephen Johnson \u00a0 March 2, 2023<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Once among the most ubiquitous pieces of technology on Earth, old school, wired-and-jacked telephones are disappearing. In 2019, only about 31% of American households<\/a> still had a landline, where 97% of U.S. adults own a cell phone<\/a>. But are we being a little hasty here?<\/p>\n

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In some ways, the superiority of smart phones is obvious\u2014you can put them in your pocket, use them to play World of Tanks,<\/em> and whip \u2018em out to take pictures of your lunch. But when it comes to the basic function of a telephone\u2014talking to other people\u2014landlines still offer advantages over cell phones, and for some people, those advantages are huge.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The sound quality was actually better until recently<\/strong><\/h2>\n

If I were writing this article a decade ago, I\u2019d tell you that landlines are better than cell phones because they work even when the power goes out, and, becausethey run on a dedicated system that is only designed to carry voices, nothing interrupts calls\u2014plus the sound quality is far superior to cell phones. Sadly though, the copper wires that once carried all our dumb conversations have been largely replaced with fiber optic cables, so almost no one in the U.S. enjoys the sonic clarity and self-powering coolness that POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) once provided. Cell service may be better than it used to be, but strictly in terms of talking to your pals, it\u2019s still not nearly as good as phones were in the 1950s.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re now cooler than smartphones<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Old phones are inherently interesting and becoming rare enough to be outr\u00e9. Making calls on an avocado-colored princess phone with a curly cord and dialer is just stylish<\/em>. It says, \u201cI have better things to do than stare at a black rectangle all day.\u201d So if you\u2019re a twee hipster, you gotta get one. But landline phones are most valuable to people who likely have no idea what \u201ctwee hipster\u201d means.<\/p>\n

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Landlines are the perfect solution for grandmas and baristas<\/h2>\n

\u201cThere were big phone companies taking advantages of our grandmas, and it was like enough is enough,\u201d says James Graham, the CEO of Community Phone<\/a>, a company dedicated to preserving landline phones for seniors. \u201cPeople get a letter from their phone company that says \u2018you need to switch to VOIP and get a new phone with us.\u2019 They\u2019ve had that number forever, and it\u2019s like, \u2018What do you do?\u2019 That\u2019s the problem we solve as a company,\u201d<\/p>\n

Graham, in his mid 20s, is an unlikely proponent of old phones, but the tech entrepreneur points out that for memory care patients, people with dementia, and people suffering from Parkinson\u2019s disease, an iPhone is often not an option, where an old school landline is a familiar and easy way to keep in contact with loved ones.<\/p>\n

Another place where the landline shines is for small businesses. Employees lose or steal cell phones, and, depending on the business, knowing the location of your work phone at all times can be vital. \u201cIt\u2019s super interesting to see that new businesses are getting it,\u201d Graham said. \u201cThere is an intrinsic value in the simplicity of a work phone. If you\u2019re a barista and need to answer the phone, it\u2019s always there every time.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are even more advantages<\/strong><\/h2>\n

If you aren\u2019t a senior or a business owner, there are still a ton of advantages to landline phones. Off the top of my head:<\/p>\n