To many, landline phones have come to seem as essential as steamships and telegrams in the smartphone era. But to those who still use them, they offer distinct advantages. — Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
When millions of AT&T customers across the US briefly lost their cellphone service last month, Francella Jackson, 61, of Fairview Heights, Illinois, said she picked up her well-worn Southwestern Bell push-button landline phone and called her friends “just so we could laugh at the people who could not use their phones”.
Derek Shaw, 68, of York, Pennsylvania, said he has an Android mobile phone but prefers talking on his black cordless landline at home. The sound quality is better, he said, and the phone is easier to hold during long conversations. Shaw said he also likes talking to people face to face rather than on Zoom and never got rid of his vinyl record collection when CDs got hot in the 1990s.
