Why Do People Still Use Landlines for Home Phone Plans?

April 27, 2015

Why do people keep their landlines for home phone plans in the age of the mobile phone? 90% of American adults own mobile phones, and that statistic doesn't include youths under 18 years of age. There seem to be many reasons not to use one for people who have grown up with a cell phone, but what there are a surprising number of reasons to keep one around.

VoIP has become a popular option for young adults beginning their careers because it comes at such a low price. That same demographic group usually can't afford multiple services or the larger bundles, but there are some drawbacks that can affect people differently depending on their location. We'll get to those in a moment.

The first clear benefit is its simplicity. While 90% of adults own a mobile phone of some kind, that still leaves 10% without one. Children generally don't have them either. Children under 17 and the elderly tend to use landlines for their immediate familiarity. Landlines serve as the obvious point of common communication for them, as well as families in general.

Home phone plans using landlines also add a layer of insurance for when accidents occur. Storms will leave you or your family without reliable mobile communications. Storms scramble signals sent between mobile phones and their carrier towers; landlines don't suffer the same fate in nasty weather.

Landlines also continue to work during power outages. The younger members of the audience might wonder how that's possible, but take our word for it! Landlines work when our other electronics fail us in fickle conditions. You might be particularly thankful for this benefit during emergencies. Many people keep it as an insurance policy for when mobile phones run into operational speed bumps.

Cell phones provide location services for emergency responders, but that only goes so far in densely populated areas. Similarly, landlines provide a specific apartment number in a residential building, whereas mobile phones only provide the approximate address. Emergencies in the home do provide more insurance. Simply put: landlines make home phone plans reliable.

Landlines offer additional perks. They boast higher sound quality than cell phones on just about any day of the week. They've been around along enough for engineers to develop highly effective ways to reduce the amount of signal lost across underground wires stretching the continent! People in California can have perfectly clear conversations with friends in Maine without experiencing any significant dips in sound quality.

How do you judge your own needs? You'll probably have to experiment a bit to find out. Keep track of all your calls for one month to review how much or how little you use your landline. Also record how many times the power goes out, how often you make a long distance call, and how often the sound quality drops. You'll be able to make a clear choice if you use one phone more often than the other.

That's why people use landlines for their home phone plans. They resist power outages, they offer a layer of security for those without reliable cell phones, and they serve as the primary points of contact for the young and elderly. Do you use a landline? Let us know!