The death of the landline

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The gentle click of my grandmother's rotary telephone in Sydney was pure magic to my four-year-old ears. As I perched on her lap, each spin of the dial marked another moment closer to hearing Mum's voice. We forgot my stuffed leopard, the only missing for my sleep over.

That landline wasn't just a device back then – it was the beating heart of our home and every other home. As I grew up, the hours melted away as I chatted with friends, while Mum's daily calls to my aunt became family legend. "You talk to her more on the phone than see her in real life" we'd tease, knowing neither one cared what we thought. As a teenager, that chunky handset remained my lifeline to the world. I secretly snaked an extension cable into my bedroom for a dial-up modem, while Mum repeatedly rang BT, baffled by the mysterious dial up tones that had invaded her perfect telephone line.

Mum still keeps her landline, despite her iPhone gleaming in her pocket. Perhaps it's more than just a phone – it's an anchor, tethering her to decades of memories within those familiar walls. The immobility of a home phone offers its own kind of comfort. Yet in my own home, the landline has vanished, joining the ranks of the obsolete.

The numbers tell a stark tale of technological distruption. In the United States, from 2003 to 2023, households clutching solely to their landlines plummeted from 40.4 percent to a mere 1.3 percent. Meanwhile, wireless-only homes surged from 2.8 percent to 76 percent. Today's children might as well consider the home phone as ancient as a telephone box, both relics of a vanished world.

In 2003, as I entered the workforce, we hedged our bets – 55.1 percent of households maintained both landline and mobile phones. By 2023, this had dwindled to 22.2 percent. I recall installing a landline in my first London flat, seduced by the prestige of that central London dialling code. It gathered dust, a preserved specimen of obsolescence.

The landline's legacy stretches back to Alexander Graham Bell's 1876 patent, though pioneers like Elisha Gray, Antonio Meucci and Johann Philipp Reis all left their mark on its creation. At first, you could only call one specific phone directly connected to yours. But soon, telephone exchanges emerged, letting people call anyone connected to the network. While Victorians had relied on telegraph operators tapping out messages in Morse code, they could now hear actual voices travelling through copper wires. It must have been pretty spooky.

By the 1900s, the telephone had become essential to daily life. Every ring might bring exciting news, a chat with a loved one, or an important message. There was something special about holding that heavy handset, hearing it click satisfyingly back into place when you finished a call. The landline wasn't just a piece of technology – it brought people together, whether they were making business deals or keeping in touch with far-away family.

My first mobile arrived in 1998, though text messaging remained a mystery until 2000. The iPhone's 2007 brought broadband internet on the go. Where landlines anchored us, mobile phones promised freedom. They became extensions of ourselves – personal, portable, perpetually evolving. As data plans grew more affordable and coverage expanded, the home phone's purpose grew increasingly questionable.

The internet further transformed our connections. Skype, WhatsApp, and Zoom normalised video calls, while email and social media created new ways to communicate. The landline, once the pinnacle of innovation, began to feel like a quaint artefact.

This transformation carries both triumph and melancholy. For over a century, the landline shaped our culture, our commerce, our connections. Yet progress marches forward. Most of us have already placed our final call on a home phone, though we barely noticed the moment pass.

Like my grandmother's rotary telephone in Sydney, the landline itself has become a relic of a vanished era. We can cherish its memory, acknowledge its profound impact on our lives, but we cannot deny its twilight. The numbers speak clearly – the landline's golden age has ended, and we've bid farewell to a faithful companion of more than a hundred years. Our wireless future beckons, measured in texts, emails, and streaming connections, each one carrying us further from that familiar dial tone.