Hey, buddy, wanna buy some phone lines? Probably wouldn't be a very good investment, though:
Verizon is reportedly in discussions to sell up to 5 million phone lines in seven states.
The New York-based telecom is courting statewide divestiture of 1.6 million lines in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont along with 3.4 million lines in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio, according to The Wall Street Journal.
[. ..]
"Our goal in the consumer space is to be more heavily weighted toward broadband," the executive told reporters.
While Verizon continues to lose traditional phone customers, Verizon Wireless showed 18 percent growth in the first quarter of this year.
According to Allen Nogee, analyst with In-Stat, wireline is on its way out.
"All these wireline service providers are preparing for it," he said. "It won't happen this year or next, but eventually wireline will go the way of dialup modems."
While the demise of dialup modems is slightly exaggerated (it's still what most Internet users have), that's clearly where we're headed. I wonder how many others are in the same position I am, still reluctant to give up my land line but wondering why I'm still paying for it. I have broadband, so I don't need the phone line to use the Internet. My cell phone still rings in even when it's on the charger and has a free long-distance zone that includes the whole state and then some. Of course, without my land line (or wireline, I guess), I wouldn't be listed in the phone book and get all those calls I didn't want in the first place.
