Today’s editorial cartoon is a shout out to all my friends who still have a landline (aka home phone line). During the campaign season, even if you are on the Do Not Call List, you can be called by political campaigns, PACs or other entities trying to convince you to vote for/against a candidate or issue. Even caller ID doesn’t always help. Typically if you see an 800 (toll free number) as the caller, you can ignore it. However, many times the campaigns have gotten smarter and initiate the call from a local area code compelling you to pick it up.
Many of my friends and a huge influx of younger people on their own for the first time have foregone their landline in favor of just having a cell phone as their primary line. The good news for this group is the robocalls and tex message are currently forbidden under FCC regulations to be sent to cell phones unless you opt in to receiving messages from that campaign More on that here.
However, I honestly think it is a matter of time when that regulation changes. Who wants to make the calls? Politicians. Who can write laws to begin allowing the robocalls to cell phones? Politicians.
So I keep paying my $30/month to have a home phone line just so every time I sign up for a store rewards card or anything else, I have a home line (that I rarely answer) for all the junk to go to. My friends/family know to call my cell.
What about you? Anyone give up their landline? If you are outside the US, are political campaigns allowed to call your cell phones??