So poor people would rather have cells than landline phones? What is wrong with this picture?
Cell phones make far more sense. Poor people tend to move frequently and have bad credit.
Most landline providers require a credit check or a big deposit to start service. That assumes that the person isn’t living with several others in a rooming house. (Have fun when your roommate calls home to Guatemala from your number...)
Anyone can buy a prepaid phone with cash and have a number that won’t change when they move. If they can’t pay the bill, they just lose service until they can afford a new phone card.
Well, I can not speak for them but my husband and I have no land line. Where we live the cheapest land line is $47 per month, just for local calls.
We have two cell phones, family plan, free long distance, 500 minutes and it is $45 per month.
That is why we have no land line.
Prepaid phones are often very inexpensive, and you can’t run up a big bill because once the minutes run out, the phone doesn’t work until you buy more. Very up-front. There’s also no long-term commitment to a monthly bill, which is a big plus for those who aren’t financially stable.
A cell with a major provider with a longterm contract would be a different thing, of course.
Poor people have more fluid living arrangements, often moving from apartment to apartment. Landlines don’t make good sense.
With landlines you can run up a huge phone bill. With prepaid cell phones you can't.
If you have run up a huge phone bill and have been unable to pay it, you might have your phone disconnected. If you've had problems with paying your phone bill in the past or other credit problems, you may find that the phone company wants a deposit before providing you with long distance service.
With a pay as you go cell phone you avoid credit checks. You may not be able to talk on the phone as often as you like, but at least you have a phone.
Tracfone also offers advantages to people with family in Mexico, which includes a considerable number of poor people (many of them here illegally). You can call to Mexico for the same price as a local call on Tracfone, and Tracfone will give users an Mexican phone number that allows friends and family in Mexico to call them without paying international long distance. They offer the same benefit to Canadians as well, but I suspect that Canadian immigrants make up a considerably lower percentage of the poor in the US.
Cheaper long distance for one thing.
Yes, cell phones now allow the poor to ignore their children at an even greater frequency than before.