Why Americans REALLY Got Rid of the Home Phone

In 1985 the phone on the kitchen wall rang for the whole family, and the number belonged to the house. In early 2003, when the government started counting, only about 3 American homes in 100 had a cellphone and no landline. Today, 4 in 5 American adults live in a home like that. Most people blame the iPhone, but when it went on sale in June 2007, 13.6% of homes had already cut the cord. This documentary follows the American home phone from the years when you rented it from the phone company, through its peak around 2000 (second lines for teenagers, the fax and dial-up internet), to the cellphone's long climb from a $3,995 luxury to the phone in everyone's pocket. The best record of the change comes from an unlikely place: a CDC health survey, which started counting phones in 2003 because polls that dialed landlines were missing the people who had dropped them. We test the usual explanations (the iPhone, robocalls, internet phone service, "young people never had one") against the dates, and end with the phone companies now retiring the old copper lines. Did your family have a kitchen wall phone? What color was it, and how long was the cord? Tell us in the comments. CHAPTERS 0:00 A Weeknight in 1985 1:20 The Phone That Came With the House 4:02 Peak Landline 5:50 The Phone You Carried 7:59 2003: The Year It Turned 9:48 Who the Polls Were Missing 10:49 Cutting the Cord 13:56 The Usual Suspects 16:00 The Majority 17:35 The Wires Come Down 19:39 The House Number "Landline" in the CDC survey means any home phone that isn't a cellphone, including phone service from a cable or internet company. 2019 and later figures are for adults (the survey was redesigned in 2019). Archive photos: U.S. National Archives (EPA DOCUMERICA; Coal Mines Administration), Gerald R. Ford, Lyndon B. Johnson and Ronald Reagan Presidential Libraries, U.S. Navy, FEMA, Library of Congress (Carol M. Highsmith Archive; CQ Roll Call collection). Music: original score. #History #AmericanHistory #Landline