In the wake of the massive Verizon Jan. 14 outage, some wondered if consumers might head back to another era and re-install telephone land lines as an emergency back up plan.
The short answer, after polling several cell phone users. is they are staying put and not even considering adding a land line.
Most feel the Jan. 14 outage was not a common occurrence and more of a one-off scenario.
"I wouldn't even consider it," said Kathy Gaughan.
Gaughan is not alone.
Consider, according to the U.S. Census Bureau data, in 2004 more than 90% of all U.S. homes had an active in-house land line.
However, in 2024, now less than 24% of all U.S. homes still have an in-house, active land line.
And, while approximately 50% of all seniors still have an active land line in their house, when it comes to those 30 years of age and younger, less than 1% have a land line.
"It's still good to have a land line," said John Thomas. "My cell phone worked but my wife's didn't, so I was glad we had the (land) line."
Land lines may soon be headed down the same road as 8-tracks and VCR recorders where they become electronic relics from another, long gone era.
"I don't miss it," said Duane, who declined to give his last name. "Cell phones are cool looking. Old rotary phones aren't."