I knew that landlines were dropping, but I didn't realize that the rates of abandonment were getting so high - if things keep going the way they are, virtually no one will be using a landline by 2025. As the Economist points out though, this is likely to cause a few headaches:

The phone network is thus not just a technical infrastructure, but a socioeconomic one. The more Americans abandon it to go mobile-only or make phone calls over the internet, the more fragile it becomes: its high fixed costs have to be spread over ever fewer subscribers. If the telephone network in New York State were a stand-alone business, it would already be in bankruptcy. In recent years it has lost 40% of its landlines and revenues have dropped by more than 30%.

Those high fixed costs aren't going to go down, but the need to pay for them (beyond inertia) will. I'd like to think that the changeover to an IP based infrastructure will go smoothly, but I have my doubts - there are still people out there using pulse phones, for gosh sakes...

Update: Don't expect this to happen without the old providers fighting for their old business models, either. Think the RIAA and copyrights. This explanation of the rejection of Google Voice from the iPhone explains things...

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