The Washington Post has a section called Department of Data that takes a look at various questions through – well, data.
Today they tackled the issue of landline phones, including the question of why landlines are more common in the Northeast. (I also pondered that question in 2016 and in 2018 I went further and talked to a number of local landline holdouts who still used dial telephones.)
The Post’s conclusion: It’s Verizon. The company was relatively early in providing fiber to the home, back before cell phones had killed landlines:
If Verizon is already piping internet and cable into your home, it’s easy to tack on a landline; the extra fee is pretty much gravy. So, even as landlines slide into oblivion, Verizon seems happy to hold on to its voice customers in the Northeast as long as it can.
It’s a good article with lots of interesting analysis. Check it out.
Return to the Concord Monitor
When we lived in NH and now in GA we opted for a land line because our homes were/are in cell phone deserts. Additionally cell phones are useless during major storm or disasters. I don’t see myself ever dropping a land line.
I moved to Sutton Mills four years ago. If I need a decent cell phone signal, I have to walk west a ways to get to a lesser fringe of the shadow from a large hill.
TDS’s 1 Gbs fiber internet makes for a decent landline.
Phone upstairs, phone downstairs, cell phone in its charging cradle so i know where it is. 🙂