Landlines are being used less and less as both companies and individuals find cheaper tariffs for mobile phones, allowing them far more freedom. Many companies now simply list individual mobile numbers on everything from business cards to general advertising and socially it is far more likely that a new acquaintance will be treated to your mobile number as opposed to a home phone number.
And with many internet packages not even needing a landline and the rise of mobile broadband becoming more prominent all the time, is it likely that before long home phones will be a thing of the past?
Hopefully not. Not only are they guaranteed to be far safer in terms of health than mobile phones (which still have a great deal of are ‘are they harmful or not’ confusion surrounding them), the home phone is also simply a more personal way to communicate. It forces people to actually sit down and relax whilst they converse as opposed to trying to do numerous tasks at once, chatting on the move, pushing our already expeditious and hectic lives to even greater levels of efficiency. Sometimes, we should just sit down and relax.
Not only this, but home phones offer cheap phone calls. Especially when it comes to international calls, the ability to buy a phone card that gives you access to low cost international calls from the comfort of your home is vast, and no mobile plan will be able to offer the same low prices that such cards can offer from your home phone.
But it’s not just cheap phone calls that make them important. Ultimately, speaking to someone at home, you know you are more likely to have their full attention, and whilst mobile phones may offer convenience, if landlines die out, we may never again feel the same level of personal intimacy when we call those closest to us.