Why do people still have landlines…
…even when they have mobile devices?
I’m on vacation in the US right now. The other day I was with some friends–they were complaining about the phone company and how they were having major problems installing phone lines in their new home. I asked why they bother with landlines–why not just use their mobile devices as their phones. The wife said: What am I going to do, carry my mobile with me all around the house, into every room? The husband said: That seems silly, to have separate lines for one family.
I thought: true and true to both answers.
I could not stop thinking about what the wife had said. How could I have missed that as a User Experience specialist? It makes sense that users don’t want to carry their phone around from room to room, from upstairs to downstairs. Do you know why I missed this one? Coming from Finland, where most of the people I know and most of the users we talk with have smaller homes (often one story) compared with the McMansions in the US. This is not to say Finns don’t live in large spaces. I also know some people living in Finland who do have at least two story homes or have a large floor plan spread only on one story.
The question from me, to those users out there: Do you carry around your mobile phones, even after you come home from work or school, everywhere you go throughout your home? If not, if you leave it in one place, do you find yourself running to answer your calls? Do you get tired of hearing different ringers go off throughout your home (especially if you have a spouse and children old enough to have their own mobiles)?
Then to address the husband’s comment from above: Do you mind that you and your family members have different phone numbers? What about for those older users, who have grandchildren…who’s number does the grandchild call?! On a personal level, unless my parents were at work, I could not imagine calling my mom’s mobile number over my dad’s. What if they took it personally? (Note: They still, and probably always will, have a landline.)
So what’s this got to do with S60? I’m just assuming that there are already answers, solutions, or ideas available for my friends (via products/applications/accessories). So, bottom line: is there anything that S60 can offer to this couple and people just like them who are reluctant to give up their landline phones?
On an idea level It does seem silly to have separate lines for family members. But on a practical level, you often do know who you want to talk to when calling. Of course there could be some entertainment value in the surprise factor of “is it dad or is it mom who picks up this time”.
With fictitious mom and dad abandoning their landline for separate mobiles, what about reluctance to “borrow” your personal mobile device? For exampe, if I call mom and want to talk to dad, she needs to give her phone to dad for us to continue the conversation? Probably more of a problem to us geeks who get emotionally attached to our gadgets?
Nico, I was also thinking about this more and this “element of surprise” is kind of gone with mobile devices. But for many it is the association, right? There are plenty of kids out there by now who have never had a landline in their home (now that makes me feel old!).
But there’s got to be a way that people could some how connect their separate mobiles into “one” when there is more than one number “on” at home. So all calls go straight to one device? It just seems that once we lose our landlines and everyone goes mobile, will we ever talk to the people we are sitting right next to in our homes?! Kind of kidding but this is the vision I get sometimes when my husband and I are both on our mobiles, sitting on the couch, “watching” TV. I know there are users out there, probably older users, who are a bit overwhelmed by the mobile taking over their home lives too.
Isn’t there a solution for those of us who have been raised with landlines and are resistant to get rid of them for these reasons and others? I’m assuming S60 has the capacity to help bridge the gap into the mobile age for these particular users and user needs?!
And, BTW, besides this couple that I mentioned in my entry, I could come up with a very large snowball sample of people like this couple who have at least two mobile devices in their family and also have a landline(s). If you ask users in major cities, you’ll probably see that they are more like Finns (without landlines). But once you leave the cities and go into the suburbs, landlines are alive and kicking!
Do we not still need landlines for broadband? In the UK landline calls are comprehensively cheaper than mobile calls, and if you already have a landline for broadband then you may as well use it for cheaper calls.
That said, I totally agree with the issue raised. Surely this problem can only be dealt with by the Telco’s and not S60.
The problem as I see it is that my wife and I both have mobiles but when we are at home which device should become the ‘house’ phone?
The scenarios become endless whether or not you actually have a real landline or a virtual number that use as your ‘house number’.
without this becoming too drawn-out I suppose you could use a common divert for all devices or location aware mobile clients that work from either the cellular operator, GPS or WLAN home network to divert calls that way. It certainly needs some thought though…..
I know people who solved this problem by buying a third mobile, to serve as a family, or ‘house’ phone.
I think the family was missing the point. “Why have seperate lines for the family?” I say, since you’re gonna have a mobile phone, why have a mobile phone and a landline. You’re still going to have seperate lines either way. Two, I only use a mobile phone. For five years it’s been my only phone and that’s worked perfectly. Better than any landline and more useful. I don’t need to carry my phone from room to room. I can hear it. But who cares if you carry it from room to room. Most people have cordless phones and carry them all over their houses. As an American and someone who works for a major technology company who drives innovcation, I can safely say that most Americans are afraid of wireless things. Most think that if a phone does have an external antenna the phone won’t work correctly. In short, the only reason I would ever need a landline is for faxing… and I can do that off my phone… and I’ve only faxed twice in my life. I don’t need a land line and I bet if that family got mobile phones, they wouldn’t miss it for a second.
As an idea it sounds good, but over here in the US the real world economics and needs can’t be met by a mobile phone only.
First, let’s talk about availablity; here in San Francisco where I live and work, cell phone signal penetration indoors is laughable; I have many a friend and colleague who cannot get a good (or any!) signal indoors in their home. It varies by carrier - my T-Mobile (1900 GSM) can get half-signal in my boss’s house, whereas his Sprint (850? CDMA) cannot. But his Sprint signal is better in my home than my T-Mobile. This is everyone’s experience - in my neighborhood I can walk to a certain location, lose *all* signal. Walk one block, have full signal. Turn the corner, and lose all signal again.
It goes without saying that this area is pretty high-tech in nature, probably much moreso than the average midwestern town. But, the reality of the situation is that due to the large number of hills and inadequate tower placement, many folks cannot live without a landline in their home in order to make phonecalls. In San Francisco, the horrible cellphone signal coverage is probably one of the most heated rants, next to our horrible public transportation system (MUNI).
Second, we have to look at economics here - a DSL setup requires a phone line; while the idea of a cable internet connection sounds nice, the reality is that A) there’s only one choice for many of us, as Comcast has a monopoly on all the wire (they own my entire building, it’s impossible to get a competing carrier); and B) because of A the price charged is much higher for a cable connection. It’s easy to find cheap DSL as long as you have a landline running to your house, you have a choice of dozens of ISPs.
There’s a minor C) point to the second idea of economics that really is about morality here too; many folks in this specific part of the world do not like caving in to monopolies and large businesses like Comcast, and choose to “vote with their dollars” and have a phone line and DSL with a smaller ISP because we support their business practices, and do *not* want to support Comcast. I personally fall into that category.
In summary, I think the main difference here has a lot to do with simply what Finland is, versus what a lot of the US is; somewhat of a culture difference as well as a reality of the landscape - our mobile infrastructure pales in comparison to yours.
My $0.02 USD.
Onyx, this family and so many others I know of, including my own, have at least two mobile phones. I agree with what most are saying…I just think it may be all about expectations, what we are used to, what we “think” we need; but that is the point about user differences. The question is: how big is this user need? If users don’t want to give up their landline for these reasons, then I would think some company would want to make money off of these users by creating a product/application/add-on to meet their needs. I would assume most mobile manufacturers WANT everyone to be psychologically-oriented to this mobile life that the majority of Finns, for example, live.
To me this looks like China leapfroging into future. Now 70 million homes already are broadband connected. Today main Chinese TV channel told about Skype, probably first time.
In Beijing many have already learnt about Skype and mobile. To me this is convergence in progress. PCs are always on and main drivers for PC+Mobile are convenience and cost saving.
First, cost is certainly an issue, at least in Europe.
True, some mobile operators have creative price plans where you can call certain numbers (your husband/wife/friends/parents etc) for free.
Still, for the vast majority of people landlines are still cheaper, especially as the past few years’ de-regulation here in Europe has resulted in general price cuts on fixed line telephone.
Secondly, broadband connectivity. I know, living in Sweden we have among the highest broadband penetration in the world, but there is a huge growth in broadband installations all across Europe and Asia. Many of these go through ADSL or related technologies (i.e. through the landline).
I personally make at least fifty calls on my cell phone for every land line call I make, but I on the other hand very much value the 8 Mbit bradband access to the Internet which my ADSL modem gives me (on a theoretical level, anyway..).
Sure, give me a wireless option with comparable performance to ADSL or cable (at a comparable cost!!), and I’ll ditch my ADSL modem first thing tomorrow.