AT&T Wants to Keep You Wired, Even If It Has to Scare You to Do It

As more and more Americans ditched their landline in exchange for cell phones only, AT&T is looking to keep people locked into landlines, using the same sort of methodology some seem to use to advance their political aspirations: fear.

AT&T is advocating a "Home Base," which includes a corded landline (not cordless) in addition to a cell phone, to dial 911 in the event of an emergency. AT&T cites the results of a survey they ran with the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) in this initiative.

Some of the results of the survey include:

• 68 percent of households do not have a comprehensive home emergency communications plan in place.
• 80 percent felt having both a landline phone and wireless phone in their home in case of emergency is important because it provides options to dial 9-1-1 reliably and quickly.
• 66 percent said that dialing 9-1-1 from a landline telephone is part of their home emergency plan.
• 54 percent of households with a landline phone do not have a corded phone set which does not require a/c power for dial tone for use in the event of a power outage.
• Only half of respondents with kids in their household have discussed with their child the location and use of a “home base” for making emergency calls (having designated a central, landline phone that can quickly be located in an emergency).
• 67 percent of respondents who have a phone cable above the ground to their house said that they have an alternative phone

Obviously a corded landline phone is better in certain circumstances. Realistically, though, the reason most people are giving up landlines is just as obvious: why keep a landline when you already have a cell phone. Most of the time, the cell phone will work just fine.

And thus, their new campaign, though, "You can't put a price on peace of mind," which uses the survey as well as reasons such as needed to dial 911 in case of a peanut allergy, is just too over-the-top for me.

Perhaps AT&T should concentrate on building out their 3G network so that iPhone users won't lament over how good things would be under Verizon, rather than trying these seemingly desperate campaigns?