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As land-line use falls, phone companies aren't ready to pull the plug

Providing plain old voice telephone service was a profitable and growing business for more than 100 years, but that run could be coming to an end.

Kurt Scherf, vice president and principal analyst in Dallas with tech market research firm Parks Associates, said there's no question that land-line voice is a shrinking business. But it still has value, he said. Scherf noted that, for all his tech savvy, he still hasn't dumped his land-line phone, as making long-distance cellphone-to-cellphone calls is still an exercise in dropped calls and crummy quality.

"I think it would be really tough for them to completely walk away from that business," he said. "If it's just not bleeding them dry to continue to provide that service, then I could see them holding on to it."

From the article, "As land-line use falls, phone companies aren't ready to pull the plug" by Victor Godinez

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