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Up until last month, I hadn’t had a landline phone at home since 2004. I viewed it as pointless, to the point where I even used the digital phone service that came with my cable subscription as a fax line. However, in 2013, I briefly hooked up a home telephone—a Western Electric 500 that I bought for my daughter at a vintage shop. The phone was more of a curiosity and a way to experience the feeling of “hanging up” a call. But even then, the home telephone was becoming obsolete.
According to the CDC’s National Health Interview Survey, which has been tracking American telephone use since 2003, fewer than 30 percent of American adults had a landline phone at home last year. Those who still have one may have set it up years ago—over half of Americans over the age of 65 rely on landlines, and less than 2 percent of Americans use them as their only phone. This isn’t surprising. Once you have a cellphone in your pocket or purse, there’s no need for a separate phone at home, right?
Wrong. Landlines are actually quite useful, and we were mistaken to abandon them. I recently resumed my landline service and quickly discovered a benefit that my smartphone can’t replicate: my landline is a phone for my entire home, rather than just one person who happens to live in it.
When we installed our new landline, we had a specific person in mind: my 9-year-old daughter. She doesn’t have a cellphone, but she does have an iPad. Thankfully, she isn’t constantly glued to it. However, there are times when we need to reach her or when her older siblings— who live in another city—need to get in touch with her. Texting another adult to find her is burdensome and takes away from her autonomy. She has to be summoned instead of being able to interact with the world directly.
We also worry about how she would reach out for help in an emergency. I remember learning how to dial 911 when I was in kindergarten, but what will my daughter do? Search for a phone and try to remember the passcode to make an emergency call? Even for a less urgent need, she wouldn’t have a way to call a neighbor or relative. In the past, if children were ever incommunicado at home, it was easily resolved by teaching them how to use the family phone. Now, we simply accept a slight unease until they have their own smartphone.
Contemplating this has made me realize what was lost when landlines fell out of favor. Phones used to belong to households, but now they’re personal possessions. While a shared landline could be frustrating when it was the only option—it meant teenagers or computers tied up the phone for long periods of time and limited privacy—having a common phone line created a sense of unity within the household. It emphasized the household as a collective with shared interests, a hub for contacting its members.
The house phone facilitated collaboration on projects. Depending on who picked up the phone, everyone might have to talk to grandma. But it also meant that whoever was home could interact with the plumber, superintendent, or lawn care specialist. When phones became personal, these responsibilities were given to individuals, which required new forms of coordination. Now, I text my wife at home to let her know that the lawn care specialist is coming later.
If someone finds it disconcerting that anyone can contact them at any time, it’s because their phone is always with them, even during times when interruption is unwelcome. We complain that smartphones let work invade our homes, but they also allow us to bring our homes into our workplaces and other spaces. Now, we have to handle plumber appointments or other calls in the office, on the train, in public restrooms, or in waiting rooms. No wonder phone calls often feel intrusive.
Interruption used to be a feature of landline phones, not a nuisance. When there were no other means of communication, people wanted a direct line of contact. Landlines also had better sound quality. But I’ve discovered that our new home phone improves the calling experience in unexpected ways. Before we got it, we would gather around a cellphone lying on a table to make video calls as a family. We didn’t care about the video and often left the camera facing the ceiling. What we really needed was an effective hands-free speakerphone, which is exactly what the desk-style phone in my kitchen provides. Cordless phones were meant to allow callers to move around, but mobile phones have perfected that function. Now, landlines can embrace immobility as an advantage. If a landline is designated for a house, then a landline handset can be designated for a specific room within that house.
I’m still using the term “landline” even though most new home phone services are delivered digitally through cable or internet services instead of an analog copper-wire telephone line. Similar to how mobile phones have evolved beyond just making calls, landline phones have also changed. In my case, I’ve installed a small-business telephony system in my home. I can have multiple independent phone lines for a small fee each month. I can turn them off if they become plagued by spam calls. And now, I can make calls between the phone handsets in my house, as if I were dialing different extensions in an office. This solves a common problem in large homes—how to contact people in faraway rooms or on different floors. Group texts aren’t reliable, especially when your kids don’t constantly have their phones on them. A modern landline can also function as an intercom.
This is a small novelty that hints at the possibility of bigger ones. Our homes are filled with small computers in doorbells, light switches, televisions, and sprinklers. However, home telephony has largely been neglected when it comes to innovation. Hopefully, that will change. The future of landline phones could include screens like tablets, allowing for a shared digital hub for smart-home controls, calendars, reminders, chores, messages, and notifications meant for everyone in the household. This could eliminate the need for paper reminders hung on corkboards or dry-erase boards.
Even in its current state, our new landline has proven to be useful. I’ve reconnected a dedicated line to our old fax machine, just in case. I’m just one person, and for now, landlines aren’t making a full comeback. But what if they did? It once seemed unimaginable for everyone to have a cellphone, let alone carry it with them everywhere. Maybe there will be a day when we leave our phones behind once again.
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