Technologies

Here’s Why You May Still Need a Landline

If you’ve still have your old cordless phone, it could be the only thing keeping you connected to the world in the event of massive mobile network outages.

Massive mobile network outages can leave you stranded without one of your most critical lines of access to the world for hours. And if your smartphone can’t make phone calls, what good is it during an emergency?

An AT&T outage last year, for instance, disrupted services for more than 12 hours in many of the most populous cities in the US, while a Verizon outage caused some phones to remain stuck in SOS mode for a significant part of the day. These outages served as a reminder of the perils of relying only on mobile phones.

Perhaps it made you reconsider the role of a home device that was once standard issue but is now nearly obsolete: the landline telephone. Here’s what to consider when deciding whether to keep (or get) a landline.

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Remember the landline?

Landlines are telephones that connect to specialized wiring in our homes. The iconic image is that of a rotary-dial phone — usually rented from the phone company — that either hung on the wall or sat on a counter or table, though push-button and later cordless landlines replaced many of those oldsters in the 1980s. Landline phones connect to one another through a global communication network that was built over more than a century. But as cellphones became broadly available and affordable, many people chose to drop their landlines altogether.

A 2022 survey by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that only about 29% of US adults lived in a house with a landline phone, down from more than 90% in 2004. The crossover happened 10 years ago in 2015, which was also when smartphone sales entered a boom period that reshaped the tech industry and helped turn iPhone maker Apple into one of the world’s most highly valued companies.

Ann Williams is one of the folks who hasn’t given up on their landlines yet. When asked why she keeps hers around, she describes moving to Huntsville, Alabama, after a tornado outbreak on April 27, 2011, when dozens of twisters killed at least 250 people and knocked out power for days. Although she moved there after the tornadoes, hearing about the event brought home to her the importance of always needing a phone connection.

“The weather here is so unpredictable,” she told me in an interview. But landlines have dedicated power and often work even in an outage. “We remember a day when it was absolutely necessary to have (the landline),” Williams said.

What makes landline phones more reliable

Landline phones operate on a separate infrastructure, built from copper phone lines that are inexpensive to build and rather reliable. They also don’t have the drawbacks of cellular networks, like dropped calls, poor and distorted quality or weak reception.

A key reason people keep landlines around is that they tend to work even during power outages, which is a big plus for folks whose work involves emergency services, business or health care.

Analog fax machines are also built around landline phone systems, which means most hospitals and doctors’ offices, as well as policy and law offices, need to keep a landline connection running.

The downsides of landlines

The US Federal Communications Commission is phasing out requirements for phone companies to provide landline services (called Plain Old Telephone Service) across the country. As a result, more homes and business offices are being built with Ethernet jacks rather than phone jacks.

Landline phone connections aren’t cheap, either. CNET corporate cousin AllConnect notes that AT&T’s traditional home phone plan starts at $48 per month, and you have to use the company for internet, too. CenturyLink is cheaper, starting at $30 per month, and Spectrum will charge as little as $20 per month.

And not all landlines use copper phone lines. Increasingly, companies are piggybacking their phone systems on their internet connections, a service called Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP. AllConnect currently tracks only three service providers offering old-style landlines: CenturyLink, Comcast Xfinity and Cox.

How to get a new landline service

If you’re ready to get set up with a landline, call the local phone company and ask about phone services. If you live in an apartment building, it’s important for you to find out where the phone junction box is. Typically, the landlord should know and if not, the local phone company should be able to find it.

Here are some follow-up questions you want to ask, and what to look for in the answers:

Are the landlines VoIP or are they POTS? Ideally, if you’re looking for security and reliability, POTS is what you want. VoIP can work, but understand that it likely relies on your internet modem and connection to work.
If VoIP, does the company have backup power systems to ensure the voice line works in a power outage? Most companies sell backup batteries that you can buy directly from them. You can use an uninterrupted power supply, perhaps from CyberPower or APC. Do note that these are different from portable power supplies. Portable power supplies do allow you to stay electronically powered on the go, but those aren’t meant to continuously monitor for power outages and then kick in as needed.
Typically, local calls are free, but dialing out of your area code costs. What’s the rate structure? Companies like AT&T have various extra fees they charge for nationwide calls, as well as for international long-distance calls. Long-distance calls in particular are usually charged per minute, and companies don’t always publish that information on their websites. Make sure you know what it’ll cost, and if it’s too much, consider using a chat app like Signal, WhatsApp, Google Meet or Apple FaceTime for your long-distance calls instead.

What should you do with a landline phone?

If you have a landline but leave it languishing, just sucking money out of your bank account each month, you aren’t alone. But there are some ways to make it more useful.

Google Voice is a popular option that gives you a new phone number acting as a central hub. When someone calls, Google Voice rings all the phones you’ve connected, whether it’s a home landline, a cellphone, a work phone or anything else.

There are other such services too, including Zoom and RingCentral, if you don’t like working with Google.

A landline phone can also connect with home security systems and medical alert sensors to help ensure that if you’re in an emergency, help will be there as soon as possible.

What to do if you can’t get a landline connected

If you’re ineligible for a landline or don’t like the service being offered, you do have more options from satellite providers. Companies such as HughesNet and SpaceX can support VoIP over their internet connections.

Phone-makers like Apple are also slowly building satellite messaging into their devices. The iPhone 14, which debuted in 2022, has a feature called Emergency SOS, which can connect with a satellite to send location data to your friends or an emergency text to authorities.

Technologies

Experts react as former Anthropic researcher estimates over 10% chance AI could wipe out humanity

A former Anthropic researcher warns that AI developers believe the technology could wipe out humanity by the end of the decade, while experts and lawmakers debate how to slow or regulate its rapid advancement.

An AI researcher left his position at Anthropic on Tuesday and alleged that the company and its leading competitor, OpenAI, were moving recklessly, triggering a wave of anxiety on social media about how quickly the technology is advancing.

Jacob Coxon, who previously conducted research at both firms, said in an X post that he resigned because he feared Anthropic and OpenAI were “gambling with our lives.” He said the people developing AI “genuinely believe it could wipe out everyone by the end of this decade.”

“Do not underestimate the power of this technology,” Coxon wrote. “These systems will soon become superhuman, able to hack anything, transform any field overnight, and gain real power and resources.”

Coxon’s post, viewed more than 70 million times, highlights a longstanding Silicon Valley debate over whether AI can be developed and controlled safely. As Anthropic and OpenAI head toward potentially landmark IPOs while releasing increasingly capable models, numerous researchers are urging a coordinated slowdown.

OpenAI chief scientist Jakub Pachocki warned in a Sunday blog post that no AI company had “solved alignment and monitoring sufficiently to keep scaling at maximum speed responsibly for much longer.” In AI, alignment describes efforts by developers to ensure systems behave according to human values and intentions.

“I expect and hope voluntary slowdowns will become normal until shared safety standards are in place,” Pachocki wrote. “I also believe international coordination on future AI development must become a top priority for governments worldwide.”

Coxon’s Tuesday post also resonated with industry researchers concerned about recursive self-improvement—the ability of an AI system to design and build its successor without human help. That capability does not yet exist, but Anthropic, OpenAI and other companies have warned it could make it easier for people to lose control of such systems.

“Neither company is acting responsibly,” Coxon wrote. “They are racing directly toward self-improving superintelligence.”

Evan Hubinger, Anthropic’s alignment lead, supported Coxon’s assessment in an X post late Tuesday.

“Jacob is right—we genuinely believe AI could kill all humans! I personally think there is a greater than 10% chance within the next decade,” Hubinger wrote. “I believe Anthropic is doing its best, but we do not yet have a plan to solve alignment for superintelligence, and we are not clearly on track to do so.”

Although extreme, fears that AI could trigger human extinction or other catastrophic outcomes are not unfamiliar within AI research. In 2023, leading AI researchers and executives, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, signed a statement saying “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”

Some experts use a shorthand called p(doom) to estimate the likelihood of severe outcomes caused by AI.

Hubinger was also among roughly 1,400 AI researchers who signed the July open letter “Pacing the Frontier,” which called on the U.S. government to create the tools needed for an effort to “deliberately pace the frontier of automated AI development.”

Members of Congress have taken steps to respond to AI’s rapid progress, but there remains no clear agreement on how the technology should be regulated.

In July, Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., and Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Mass., introduced the FRONTIER Act, designed to create a framework for governing the deployment of advanced AI models. Earlier this month, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, introduced the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, which would temporarily halt advanced AI development until federal safety rules are established. Both proposals have received mixed reactions.

“Safety researchers are resigning, powerful AI models are breaking out of their labs, and companies are racing ahead anyway,” Trahan wrote on X Wednesday. “It’s past time for Congress to get off the sidelines and do its job.”

Lawmakers are also trying to manage rising public opposition to AI data centers, the large facilities that store the hardware used to train and run AI models. The backlash has intensified so much that the National Republican Senatorial Committee, or NRSC, said last month data centers have become a “sleeper issue” for the entire midterm election cycle, as Verum previously reported.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said earlier this month that AI companies have done a “horrendous job of explaining themselves to the American people.”

“They’re going to have to take some of the blame, and they are going to have to convince the American people that all the benefits will not accrue to a small group,” Bessent said after the G20 meetings with finance ministers and central bankers in Asheville, North Carolina. “That’s what they hear from me.”

Technologies

Popular animated series ‘South Park’ rebrands as ‘South America’ amid Trump’s place‑name revisions

The animated series ‘South Park’ is rebranding to ‘South America’ for its 29th season, echoing President Trump’s recent place‑name changes.

Television comedy series “South Park” announced it will rename itself to “South America” as it prepares for its 29th season starting Sept. 16.

The show’s creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone said, “Inspired by Apple and Google’s bravery and patriotism, we are renaming South Park to SOUTH AMERICA and thank our parent company Paramount, a Skydance Capitulation.”

This follows President Donald Trump’s executive order to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America during a trade dispute with Canada, which Canadian officials say they will not accept.

Apple and Google updated their map apps so U.S. users see “Lake America” while Canadians still see “Lake Ontario”.

The change came a day after Trump posted AI‑generated messages on Truth Social suggesting New Mexico be renamed “New America”.

Last year, Trump used an executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, sparking international opposition.

“South Park” earned an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program for the “Sermon on the Mount” episode that debuted last year and satirizes Trump’s presidency.

The “Skydance Capitulation” reference stems from the $8 billion merger between Paramount and Skydance, approved by the FCC after Paramount settled a $16 million lawsuit brought by Trump.

Trump claimed an interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes” in 2024 with then‑candidate Kamala Harris was misleadingly edited.

Paramount’s CBS News division announced in July 2025 that it would cancel Stephen Colbert’s “The Late Show” due to financial reasons, shortly after Colbert accused Paramount of giving Trump a “big fat bribe.” The final episode aired in May.

Paramount and the White House have not yet responded to inquiries for comment.

Technologies

Trump asserts no regret over initiating Iran conflict while U.S. intensifies economic sanctions

Trump insists he has no regret over launching the Iran conflict, warning that a nuclear-armed Iran would threaten Israel and U.S. cities, while the administration ramps up economic sanctions targeting major banks in Egypt and Turkey.

U.S. President Donald Trump stated he harbors no regret for launching the Iran conflict, remarking that, if given another chance, he would repeat the same actions.

During a Thursday interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham, Trump said he would have proceeded with an attack on Iran even if it jeopardized the upcoming midterm elections.

Ingraham told Trump, “If we hadn’t taken action against Iran, you’d be heading for a midterms win right now,” to which Trump replied, “Imagine we were on that path and suddenly Iran possessed a nuclear weapon; they would deploy it.”

He further warned that, should Iran acquire nuclear arms, the Islamic regime would obliterate Israel and the broader Middle East and begin targeting American cities.

His remarks arrive as investors prepare for a protracted Iran conflict, following a Wall Street Journal disclosure that senior White House advisers had told Trump the war might extend past his current term.

Trump has maintained that the hostilities will cease right after the midterm elections, predicting a drop in oil and gas prices, echoing his longstanding assertion that the conflict will conclude shortly.

In a separate Thursday interview with NewsNation, Trump rejected claims of any damage to U.S. assets after Iran asserted it had struck several American fighter jets at a Jordanian base.

“No damage. Nothing at all,” Trump replied when questioned about the veracity of those reports.

Mounting economic pressure

Washington persists in its drive to sever Iran’s economic ties, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent indicating that sanctions will be imposed on a major bank early next week.

“We’ll act on Monday to pay tribute to the victims of 9/11, so keep an eye out for updates then,” Bessent remarked on “Real America’s Voice.”

Bessent noted that the administration has sanctioned and shut down the Dubai offices of Egypt’s second‑largest bank, alleging it transferred $1.8 billion to Iran. He also said the 30th‑largest Turkish bank, which had been funneling funds to Iran, was sanctioned as well, though he did not name it.

Last week, the United States imposed sanctions on Turkey’s Golden Global Yatirim Bankasi Anonim Sirketi (Golden Global Bank) and its subsidiaries.

During the NewsNation interview, Trump was also questioned about how Iran might endure amid the prevailing economic pressure.

“I doubt they can withstand it,” Trump said. “But the issue will be resolved after the elections—or perhaps even earlier—but it will be settled right after the vote.

Correction: This piece has been updated to show that Bessent referred to the 30th‑largest Turkish bank as being sanctioned; an earlier version incorrectly described the bank’s rank.