Cutting the Cord

Cutting the cord - dropping your landline service to use just a wireless phone.  I was thinking about that today; I was quite an early adopter.  I moved to Wichita in 1994 and didn't spend the money for a Southwestern Bell landline.  But I did have the money to see Blake at Baysingers Police Supply and get an Audiovox Bag Phone.  It had no battery; that was an extra cost addon.  I ran it from a 12V adapter in the car and a battery charger in the house.

Had a 'great' plan - 60 minutes talk time a month!  It was OK for ordering pizza or having a phone for quick calls.  But for long calls I'd drive out to the Airport and use one of their comfortable pay phone kiosks and my MCI calling card.  Ah, oldschool phones.  No text, no data, just 800mHz Analog with a 5 watt peak power radio. No dead spots with that beast!

That lasted till I moved out of the overpriced apartment and across town to an amazing 1 bedroom shack, for $200 a month.  And about that time 'da innernet came along, so I had to have a POTS line for dialup!  Cut the wireless and went all wired again, rockin a pager from Boeing.  A few years later Boeing got with the times and assigned the field support reps (me) Motorola Star Tac phones!  We were stoked - real flip phones with *two* batteries!  You could usually get through a whole 8-hour day on the first battery, then swap when you got home to the spare battery.  Still had the landline -- gotta have that dialup!

Moved to Overland Park in 1999; didn't check the DSLAM locations; over 20,000 wire-feet from the CO (no DSLAMS back then), so no DSL; barely could hold a 56K dialup connection in that townhome -- until Everest came along.  Crazy startup ISP running fresh fiber to the neighborhood and brand new copper coax to the houses, plus clean new twisted pair for a real analog phone line - none of this dodgy VOIP over Cable stuff.

Kept their landline until the 2004 election season - the political calls on the wall phone got to be too much -- I'm paying for this?  Cut the cord again 10 years later.

Point?  Not much.  Just a dive into history.