(Robin Rowland/CBC)

Bruce Drake, a Toronto-based lawyer in his late 50s, is no stranger to wireless technology — he owns a BlackBerry and a much-coveted Apple iPhone. Along with these two cutting-edge communication tools, Drake still has a landline phone at home — and he's not entirely sure why.

"I have certainly advised my kids not to bother with a landline, but for me it's a lost cause — it may just be inertia," he said.

A telephone chained to the wall by copper wiring may seem archaic in an era of mobile technology, but most Canadians seem reluctant to release their grip on the cumbersome devices.

About five per cent of households reported having a cellphone but no landline in December 2006, a small change from 4.8 per cent a year before, according to Statistics Canada.

You just keep me hanging on

Telecommunications analysts say Canadians aren't substituting mobile devices for landlines mainly because of the high cost of cellphone plans, and the lack of competition in a market dominated by three carriers that also offer wired phone services.

But cost and convenience may not be the only factors keeping people hooked into their wall — a "hardwired" need for a deeper level of communication could also play a role.

Drake said when he's at home, a difference in calling costs between the landline and his iPhone doesn't matter — when he wants to have a conversation, it all comes down to proximity. "I pick up the closest phone."

But when Drake's wife is in the house and she wants to pick up a phone and chat, she automatically reaches for the landline.

"I really do see the mobile phone as [a gadget for] when I'm mobile, and the landline phone when I'm stationary," Peggy Aitchison said.

Telecommunications analysts say Canadians aren't substituting mobile devices for landlines mainly because of the high cost of cellphone plans, and the lack of competition in a market dominated by three carriers that also offer wired phone services. (Robin Rowland/CBC)

"Could I get along without [a landline]? Probably — and yet I think I'm just too rooted in the idea that the real phone is a phone that comes out from the wall."

There may be more to Aitchison's phone preferences than tradition or habit. Dr. Frank Russo, director of the Sound, Mind, Applied Research & Technology Lab at Ryerson University, says people may keep reaching for their landlines because they're simply looking for a better-quality conversation.

Landline phone conversations often take place in relatively calm, quiet areas, such as a living room or a bedroom, Russo says. Cellphone calls, on the other hand, can take place anywhere, including areas where there's lots going on — such as a car, a street corner or a restaurant. "You start thinking about it more than the conversation, and it can distract you entirely."

Sound levels can also be an issue. Even if you're using your cellphone at home, Russo says it's tougher to "read" another person's emotions based on their speech because the voice signal level is much lower than the ambient noise level when compared to landlines.

This inferior sound quality makes it harder to interpret verbal cues, such as tone and word emphasis, Russo adds. It forces people to slow their conversations, clarifying or adjusting language to make sure they're getting their points across clearly.

The cost of cutting copper

While call quality may be helping landline phones maintain their allure, market watchers say money talks. And right now it still costs too much money to do much talking on cellphones.

Amit Kaminer, a telecommunications research analyst with the Seaboard Group, says other Canadians are holding onto landlines because wireless carriers don't offer packages at a comparable price.

"If you are a Canadian and you want to switch to a solely wireless option, the plans that the carriers are offering are not enough — you're constantly counting the minutes, afraid you're going to run out," he said.

"We're used to unlimited talk time on our landlines. We pay a fixed fee, and … we talk however, and whenever, we want. In the wireless setting, it's not the same."

Canadians' enthusiastic reaction to the City Fido package — an unlimited-local calling plan that was available in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver until March of 2005 — shows people would cut their wires if a cost-effective alternative existed, according to Kaminer.

"People were lining up for the City Fido offer [when it came out in 2004], and as soon as they got it, they got rid of their landline because they didn't need it," he said.

"They got a relatively cheap package that was the same price as a landline … $40 to $50, that's about the price that Fido offered."

Now, it looks like Canadians are "lining up" to bid on City Fido packages on eBay. The unlimited local calling plans are no longer sold by Fido, but they have no expiry date. A quick search of the online auction site in early November turned up the cellphone SIM cards for two plans going for $900 and $1,000 respectively.

Tom Parker, a retail sales manager based in Kelowna, B.C., got rid of his home landline in 2002 and now relies solely on his BlackBerry. (Karla Zaldana)

Tom Parker, a retail sales manager based in Kelowna, B.C., who has relied solely on his BlackBerry to chat for about five years, says his lack of daytime minutes determines how long his cellphone conversations are, even though he has held on to a discounted package offered through a previous employer.

"You're always very limited — when you're talking you've always got it in the back of your head, 'I'm using all of my minutes,'" he said.

"You limit your conversation based on your plan, not based on how long you want to talk."

It’s a northern thing

Gary Hughes, a piping engineer based in Calgary also got rid of his landline in favour of a cellphone in 2002. He says the landline was "redundant" because he doesn't talk on the phone much, but he still misses mobile pricing south of the border.

"I lived in the United States for quite a few years, and they had better packages down there. The one I had with Cingular was free roaming and free long-distance nationwide in all of the U.S.," Hughes said.

"Canada doesn't seem to offer as good packages, or it's much more expensive to get that kind of package."

Kaminer says Canadians aren't cutting their landline cords as quickly as their southern counterparts because of the cost disparity Hughes described. More than one out of every eight American homes, or at least 12.8 per cent, had only wireless telephones at the end of 2006.

One year before, only one out of every 13 adults, or about 7.7 per cent, lived in wireless-only households, according to a report by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

This 5.1 per cent jump is much higher than in Canada, which only saw a 0.2 per cent increase in households relying solely on wireless telephones between the same two years, according to Statistics Canada.

Privacy norms go off the hook

The federal government is slated to hold an auction for cellphone carriers to bid on wireless spectrum, otherwise known as bandwidth, early next year. Depending on how the auction goes, it could mean major changes for cellphone adoption and use patterns in Canada in the coming years.

Kaminer hopes a few more companies will get into the game, making the cellphone business more competitive for carriers, and, conversely, less expensive for Canadian consumers.

"A new carrier, or a new entrant, might have a new cost structure, and a different agenda — I think that would speed up wireless substitution," he said.

That could entice more Canadians to drop their landlines and rely solely on mobile technology.

"If some comparable plan offered you the same benefits at the same price you pay now for your landline, I don't see a reason why people would mind transferring," Kaminer says.

Russo says a move towards solely wireless telecommunications is also in sync with our rapidly changing social norms.

"I think some of the resistance to cellphones 10 years ago didn't exclusively come from their size, or sound quality — it also came from the fact that people just weren't comfortable exposing their business in public," he said.

"Somehow, in a very short span of time, things have really changed. Our culture is becoming increasingly comfortable with having a public persona — I think the whole phenomenon of Facebook and social networking on the web is connected to this."

"The ability to stay in touch with anybody at any time is seductive … it's just too much to resist, almost," adds Aitchinson, a high school principal who uses her cellphone and BlackBerry to address work-related communications on the run.

"I have the BlackBerry with me all the time, and if parents e-mail me about a concern I'm able to write back right away. I think they're very grateful for that instant acknowledgement."

But Russo doubts our conversations will ever go completely mobile — even if sound quality on cellphones improves.

"We're social beings, so being on a cellphone talking to people wherever is a nice adaptation," Russo said. "But I think ultimately, people will rely on a landline, or some version of it, like a [Star Trek] 'holodeck,' for those critical conversations where they need to really communicate about something essential, complicated, or deeply emotional."

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