What's a Telephone Line?
Aha! You've only had cell phone service,
right? Well, there's a whole 'nuther type of telephone service
that you should really know about. At the very least, you'll
be ready if it ever appears in a trivia question.
A Brief History
of the Landline
In 1876, two men were working to invent a way to send voices
over telegraph wires. The one we remember is Alexander Graham
Bell. The other, Elisha Gray, got to the U.S. Patent Office second,
just hours later. Bell's first words on the phone were "Mr.
Watson, come here..." Gray's first words at the Patent Office
were no doubt more colorful.
Over the next hundred years, the Bell Telephone
Company wired the country so that everyone could have a phone
in their home or office. In the beginning you had people turning
cranks on the phones to make calls. Eventually, you had people
making crank calls on the phone. The basic technology didn't
really change all that much. Each phone plugs into a socket in
the wall where a pair of copper wires connect it to the phone
office miles away. Most of the wires run some combination of
underground and overhead on what are quaintly called telephone
poles. These wires are what we call landlines even when they
are hanging up in the air. There are also wires that run under
water but they are called undersea cables.
The biggest technology advance in landline
phones came early with the invention of the automatic switch
in 1899. Almon B. Strowger, a Kansas City undertaker, was suspicious
that the phone company's switchboard operator was secretly diverting
potential customers to a rival undertaker. He decided the only
thing to do was make her job obsolete by replacing live operators
with machines. The Strowger Switch he invented is actually still
in use today, to the chagrin of laid off switchboard operators
who thought it might be a passing fad. Most phone systems have
now advanced to computerized switches, touch tone dialing and
the dreaded automated attendants that make you long for the sound
of a human voice.
Besides switchboard operators, the other
big demise in the phone industry has been the breakup of the
Bell Telephone Company. Bad for monopolies, good for consumers.
You now have the option of getting both your local and long distance
landline phone service from competitive providers.
Today's Landline Telephone Services
A popular trend in landline service
is the bundle of local and long distance minutes, even unlimited
calling, for a single monthly price. If you want to keep the
local phone company as the provider of your local phone service
but want a better rate on long distance calls, you can switch
only your long distance to a competitive provider. Read more
about these options in our article, "I
Already Have a Telephone Line."
You may also be interested in home phone
services that don't use the traditional landline. These include
VoIP broadband phone and residential wireless. Read more about
these in our article "I Do NOT
Have a Telephone Line."
Why Landlines Are Still Valuable
The tried and true technology of wired phone service still has
its advantages. It is very reliable service and simple corded
phones work even when there is no house power available. The
emergency operator knows exactly where your phone line is located
when you call 911. Some security systems and satellite receivers
need a landline phone connection to provide their services. Landlines
also support DSL high speed Internet, which may be all that is
available for a reasonable price if Cable Internet isn't available.
Traditional phone line pricing may include
options like a paying a few cents per local call rather than
per minute, which is great if you like to hang on the phone for
hours and hours or want to use simple and cheap dial-up Internet
service.
You can read more about this in the CallBird.com
article, "Why You Still Need a Landline."
I already have a
telephone line