Landline phone companies should shut the hell up and make a service worth having

[Image: phone.jpg]Phone companies are all downcast because their precious landline cash cow to every home in America is being replaced by cell phones.

I like having a landline, I think it’s good to have something that doesn’t fry your brain.

But I dropped my cell phone in a cup of water yesterday (it’s fucked, and I can’t replace it right now), so I’m stuck with only a landline.

And I’m finding out just how fucking useless it is.

I’m in area code 323. That that means I can call a bunch of numbers in LA proper. However, Eagle Rock is a little spot stuck right up between two different area codes (Burbank and Pasadena, roughly). Also, most of my friends have out-of-state cell phones.

So unless I want to get charged up the ass, I can’t call my local T-Mobile store to ask their hours. I can’t call my friends to tell them I broke my phone or see what they’re up to. I can’t call anyone, in fact, because there are basically no fucking local number for me.

So my landline is a $15/month useless piece of shit. And phone companies wonder why people don’t want them.

[ EDIT: Turns out that Skype’s free skype-out service is extremely useful, so I’m going to be using that instead of a “real” phone. ]