At breakfast the other day, I learned something about Andy Taylor.
No, not the sheriff of Mayberry. But yes, he has been kidded about the name – though only for his entire lifetime.
This Andy Taylor was my editor at the Times-Dispatch before I left a few years back. He took early retirement last year. He still occasionally fills in as editor of an online business journal, plays golf and meets up with old colleagues – in this case, Steve Clark and me.
What I found out is Andy no longer has a telephone.
Technically, he no longer has a so-called “land line” – a traditional phone that plugs into the wall. I consider that the “real phone,” though. He and his whole family do still have cell phones.
Turns out a lot of people have junked their land line. A National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) in 2008 showed 20.2 percent of American homes had already ditched them.
Nearly as telling: Even among those keeping land lines, 14.5 percent make nearly all their calls on cell phones anyway.
But most of the switchers, at least anecdotally, seem to be Gen Xers and younger
generations. Baby boomers and seniors still hang on to the “real phones.” Many of us have both types.
So Andy’s story was interesting. He’s definitely no Gex Xer.
Why did he do it? “This was about the time I was getting ready to retire, so I was looking at ways to trim costs,” he says. Together, his land line, family plan for cell phones and cable computer service ran between $250 and $300 a month.
Dropping the phone saved only $30 a month. “But it was a savings,” he says, “and we found we could get along just fine without a home-based telephone.”
No longer would his number be in a phone book. But those who called the old land line heard a recorded message giving them his cell number.
The phone companies, by the way, seem fine with all the switching.
Last fall, the chief executive of Verizon Communications told an investor conference that his company simply no longer was concerned with telephones that are connected with wires. Increasingly, cell phones or phone service through the Internet are replacing them.
Late in the year, AT&T went further. It asked the Federal Communications Commission to free it from being required to maintain a landline infrastructure. AT&T even asked the FCC to set a deadline for completely phasing out lines entirely.
That may not happen right away. But it’s clear that land lines will one day be a
communications dinosaur.
Meanwhile, Andy says the only drawback is the one we’re all aware of: cell reception is not always so great. But he doesn’t pay extra for long distance – and doesn’t receive telemarketing calls during dinner.
“Making the move,” he says, “is not as scary as it seems.”
Possibly. I admire his courage, though.
It still seems a big jump to get off the dinosaur.
.jpg)
