Landline phones are now passé; time to do away with them?

As we head into another new year, it is time to dwell on an old habit that dies hard in India. The landline telephone. If anything is a symbol of the old culture of scarcity and elitism in India, it surely is that antediluvian communication receptacle that was once as hard to get as a car or passport. It remains largely a government monopoly and, in today’s world, should be counted as a dispensable luxury.

After all, aam aadmis mostly have mobile phones, as they are cheap, easy to obtain and, best of all, not stuck to permanent addresses like many of their itinerant owners. They rarely go on the blink and need not be repaired by bribing slothful linemen.

Yet, many who would rather be mobile cling on to their public sector landline phones and perforce deal with indifferent government staff simply because the bill is regarded as proof of residence, a privilege not accorded to private communication providers. Nationalised banks, which regularly demonstrate a similar blasé attitude towards their aamcustomers, also unduly benefit from the same anomaly.

Now that governments, albeit at the Supreme Court’s prodding, are doing away with sarkari privileges like red beacons, cutting this mandatory connection to the landline phone can perhaps be considered as an aam aadmi-friendly gesture to ring in the new year.