They become extinct like the Dinosaurs. In the United States, the Bell operating companies still control the bulk of the country's 180 million landlines and are far from giving up on what has been a massive cash cow. When pushed, they are offering their own Internet-based calling services, but these are rarely advertised. It is cheaper to cut prices to keep a customer, they figure, than to try to win him back from a rival later.
During the first quarter of this year, the number of traditional telephone lines in the United States dropped by 150,000 per week, according to TeleGeography, a research firm. At the same time, the number of subscribers to Internet telephone services increased by 100,000 per week. The main reason behind the falling prices for phone service is that it costs less to deliver voice communications over the Internet than over the traditional phone network.
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