When I was in college I was lucky to talk to my family by telephone once a week. Today almost all college students have their own cell phones and talk with their family perhaps several times a day. In fact the trend is so prevalent that colleges and universities are beginning to remove the landlines from campus dormitories. Historically dorm phone systems have been both cash cows and maintenance expenses for administrators.
What's important here is the total cultural and environmental shift that is occurring. Students today are tomorrow's consumers and business people. They are learning to live without landlines in college. They won't see the need for them once they leave college.
What can reverse this trend and save local wired phone companies? Broadband internet access. The challenge will be financing superior technology to compete with cable broadband. How are local wired phone companies going to raise enough money from a shrinking customer base of landline users to finance higher speed DSL services. One strategy they use is to force DSL customers to maintain voice service as well even if they don't use it.
Ya, that will work. Hold your customer hostage.
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