*Newsworthy's noise about landline telephones

Five years ago while living in a downtown apartment building, the property manager said, "there are only two units in this entire building that are connected to landline phones". And he would have known since he was the person in charge of accessing the telephone panel. At that time I didn't use a cell phone, so, out of the only two landlines installed, one was in my apartment.

The strategy to give up landline phone service and landline telephones stretched long before 2003. Thinking back, I remember a call I had made to my aunt who lived seven hundred miles away. Using dialup Internet by landline phone service, I had called her several years earlier from my PC.

Despite the fact that the call was occupied with noise and I was yelling into the microphone, repeating myself; I felt like I was connected and was ecstatic at my accomplishment. Not to mention thinking I was the coolest person in the house for making a long distance call for free!

Yelling to my aunt, I said "I'm calling you from my computer. Can you hear me?" To which she replied "What? I can't hear you!" I said, "Aunt Wanda, it's me and I'm using the computer to call you. Can you hear me? I'm trying to see how this works." But it was a short-lived dream at the time and the call didn't last long because Aunt Wanda couldn't decipher my words very well. We found out that each other was alive and doing ok, and that was about it.

If wearing a headset isn't enough hassle, nothing is more frustrating then noise on a phone line, no matter if it is landline or not. Although I don't remember the exact program I was using that day to call my aunt, I decided then, that Internet phone was not for me. And although there were several other interfaces out there that I could try with my PC in order to make a free long distance phone call - I was simply not interested anymore. That day, it was clear to me that the faithful clarity of the landline service was my best choice for making telephone calls.

Knowing that a non-working PC-to-phone interface in the year 2000 and dial up Internet is old news - that was then, this is now. Internet phone has since made a big hit with millions of users over the past few years. Now it is called Voice over Internet Protocol. As advertised, for millions of phone users, VOIP is a consistent signal with few problems and it uses several pieces of equipment as opposed to a simple, analog-phone for landline-service. As for being trendy, it has become the latest and greatest reason to give up landline phone service, in addition to cell phones.

Even though new developments are big hits with consumers, with the hassle and cost of keeping up with trends eg: extra equipment, constant Internet connectivity, cell phone minutes, dropped calls, roaming charges and even more equipment for power failures - a landline phone is still the simplest form of making a call.

For no matter what pace or trend technology was in at the time (the electricity failed, the batteries died and gas stations were closed (for generator backup), it was the backup plan of a corded landline telephone that recently helped me make a phone call during a state of emergency/hurricane. Therefore, if you are undecided about canceling service with your landline telephone provider, you may want to consider the same backup plan for using the phone when the sky comes falling.