There was a time, back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, that early-adaptor American households had a rotary telephone.  As they began putting telephones into other rooms, as new technology allowed touch-tone dialing, caller-ID, call-waiting and numerous other “bells & whistles”, more Americans got land-lines.  As the base cost of providing land-line service was spread over an ever-increasing base of users, the cost per land-line started going down.

The introduction of cell phones stopped the growth in land-lines.  The introduction of smart-phones with internet started to decline in land-line usage.  With millennials avoiding land-lines en mass, the future of land-lines looks uncertain at best.  So, why are land-line prices increasing?

One reason is the growth in home-based businesses that need fax support.  This creates an artificial level of demand for land-lines.  However, once cellular technology improves enough to offer fax support reliably and simply or once scanning technology gets more widespread, this support for land-lines will go away.

The main reason is the low-profile of land-line charges in the numerous “bundling” choices offered by land-line providers.  Bundling was a brilliant strategic move to save land-lines and land-line companies.  If getting rid of your land-line means getting rid of your internet, it will not happen.  However, as we start accessing the internet in different ways, the value of bundling will decrease.

All of my career, AT&T and Verizon and other land-line providers have been considered “blue-chip,” but I suspect that will not continue, unless they move more rapidly to jettison their land-line businesses and expand their cellular businesses.

. . . tick, tick, tick . . .