Wired Telephone Service...Too Big To Fail!

I was thumbing through Business Week the other day, and came across an article about the new Verizon wireless home telephone system called the Verizon Hub. It claims that the home phone has been reinvented. Wow! I was SO impressed.

This baby is a wireless console that you use in place of your land line because, as you know, people are deserting land telephone lines in droves. Millions upon millions of people are canceling their land lines every year. This Verizon console integrates all of your wireless functions, including your Blackberry, your broadband, and of course, you wireless telephone. In addition, you can watch movie trailers, buy movie theater tickets, monitor traffic, monitor your “little darl’ins”, send photos and videos, and keep you calendar….all from the Verizon Hub. And you don’t need a telephone line. Technological nirvana has been achieved.

I don’t know about you, in my purpose driven life, the purpose for using the telephone is to call somebody to talk, and hopefully they will be at the other end and you can have a conversation. If I wanted to watch movie trailers, I still can use my computer. Better yet, I can go to a movie theater and watch the previews of coming attractions.

This wireless phone stuff has gotten out of hand. I hate cell phones. They may be able to do everything but wipe your rear (give them some time and they will do that, too!), but they are a pain to use. Let’s start with phone call quality. Not good, and I don’t care how you slice or dice it. Mostly I spend time trying to hear the person on the cell phone fading in and out, breaking up, and saying “what” over and over again. Dropped calls are annoying, and I have been plenty annoyed. And charging those little suckers is a pain, and their ability to hold a charge needs work. The battery technology hasn’t caught up. Not to mention when the power goes out, you can’t charge the battery. For those of you who have plain, old fashioned phones, they carry their own electric connection and will work when the power is out.

And they are expensive. I’m tired of figuring who should be in my circle or who is considered to be “family and friends." I don’t have any friends, and I don’t want to talk to my family. Yes, you get free long distance, but it isn’t really free. I am paying $150.00/month for all of this free service for me, my son, my wife, and my late mother…trying to cancel her phone has been a nightmare. And then I have to figure out the “minutes;” not to mention those God awful “rollover” minutes commercials with that obsessive compulsive, annoying women and her bratty kids.

In all seriousness, America has built up the best wired telephone system in the world at considerable cost. It is reliable. The quality is outstanding. It provides a common, quantifiable communication experience, and a reliable listing of people, their telephone numbers and addresses just in case I become demented and wanto to look for someone to talk to.

Cell phones obviously have their place when traveling, or for emergencies. But to make them the sole source of your telephone communications is a step backward in communication, not a step forward. Too many variables make it highly unreliable. For those under 30, reliability is probably something low on the priority list. But wired service provides for a common connection, a good method of keeping in touch, and peace of mind. Something that the “20- somethings” will genetically crave when they turn 40.

We shouldn’t be too quick to discount the need and benefit of a strong wired telephone system. If it were gone, we would miss it. Wired telephone service is truly something too big to fail.