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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."

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