Page 23 - aruba-today-20170505

A23
TECHNOLOGY Friday 5 May 2017

Americans hang up on landlines as cellphone homes dominate

ANICK JESDANUN it are from someone look-
AP Technology Writer ing to sell me something,”
NEW YORK (AP) — Debo- says Matt Lawrence, a
rah Braswell, a university management consultant
administrator in Alabama, in O’Fallon, Missouri.
is a member of a dwindling On the other hand, it’s
group — people with a comforting to have a de-
landline phone at home. vice just for calls — without
According to a U.S. gov- “all of the irritating bells and
ernment study released whistles of smartphones,”
Thursday, 50.8 percent of says Brad Cooney, a Navy
homes and apartments veteran in Brandon, Missis-
had only cellphone service sippi. “I can shut the (cell)
in the latter half of 2016, phone off and still have a
the first time such house- landline if someone needs
holds attained a majority to call me.”
in the survey. Braswell and PHONE NOSTALGIA
her family are part of the The landline harkens to
45.9 percent that still have an era in which a number
landline phones. The re- is tied to a family and not
maining households have an individual. You can call
no phone service at all. your parents’ home and
More than 39 percent of not play favorites in choos-
U.S. households — includ- ing Mom or Dad. Children
ing Braswell’s — have both This Wednesday, April 14, 2016, file photo, shows a push-button landline telephone, in Whitefield, can talk to Grandma at
landline and cellphone ser- Maine. once from separate phone
vice. The landline comes in Associated Press extensions.
handy when someone mis- “My parents had landlines,
places one of the seven as did their parents,” says
cellphones kicking around more likely to drink heav- security system in Zionsville, lines, although the CDC Axel, the landline user in
her three-story house in a ily, more likely to smoke Indiana. Getting rid of the counts them that way. The Seal Beach. “It’s probably
Birmingham suburb. “You and be uninsured,” even line would require crews to internet modem for these a habit. It just feels more
walk around your house after factoring for age and drill holes in his home and phones still needs power. comfortable to me.”
calling yourself to find it,” income, says Stephen J. put batteries in the bed- Both kinds of landline Cynthia Dibblee, a retired
she says. Blumberg, the study’s co- room. No thanks, he says. phones are more depend- teacher in Merced, Cali-
It’s also useful when some- author (and a landline user Chris Houchens, who works able for 911. Even if you fornia, has elderly parents
one breaks or loses a cell- himself). in sales and marketing, says can’t give dispatchers your who “can’t remember our
phone and has to wait for “There certainly is some- his phone company forces home address, they would cell numbers but know the
a replacement. thing about giving up a him to get a landline with often have that already. landline by heart.”
THE PATTERNS landline that appeals to internet service. There’s no Cellphones primarily use THE FUTURE
Renters and younger adults the same people who may cable TV alternative where GPS for location, which USTelecom, a trade group
are more likely to have just engage in risky behavior.” he lives in rural Smiths means the dispatcher for traditional phone com-
a cellphone, which re- Why that’s so will require Grove, Kentucky. might know which building panies, estimates that true
searchers attribute to their further research. And those who could drop you’re in, but not the spe- landlines — the copper
mobility and comfort with The survey doesn’t get into phone service might pay cific apartment. kind — now connect fewer
newer technologies. why people ditch or keep more after losing package For that reason, Trey For- than 20 percent of house-
The in-person survey of landlines, though land- discounts. Martin Axel, a re- gety of the nonprofit Na- holds. The group says com-
19,956 households was part line users cited a number tired hospital administrator tional Emergency Number panies have adapted by
of the Centers for Disease of reasons for hanging on in Seal Beach, California, Association recommends offering other types of ser-
Control and Prevention’s in phone interviews and says dropping the landline landlines for those who live vices, including video and,
National Health Interview email exchanges with The would increase his cable alone and have a disabil- for some, cellphones.
Survey, which tracks land- Associated Press. bill by more than $40 a ity or medical condition. Even so, phone companies
line use in order to assure NO CHOICE IN THE MATTER month. He says cellphone location get new landline custom-
representative samples in Plenty of people would EMERGENCIES accuracy is improving, but ers now and then.
ongoing health studies. get rid of their landlines if Traditional copper phone there’s still work to be done. Shawn Fisch, a 37-year-old
The survey has a margin of they could. It goes beyond lines have their own power SPAM MAGNETS teacher in New York, got
error of plus or minus 1 per- complaints about cellular supply, so those landlines In many households, the his first landline after be-
centage point. reception at home. still work during blackouts. landline is a honey trap for coming a dad. When his
Cellphone-only home Joe Krkoska, a supply chain Internet-based phones telemarketers. son is old enough, he says,
have other commonalities. director, needs a tradition- through the cable or phone “We never use the landline, he’ll need “an extra way to
“Wireless-only adults are al copper wire for his home company aren’t true land- and the only calls I get on phone home.”q