10 Reasons Landline Phone Pricing Might Vary

Telephone landline service has been the historical norm for home and business communications, and despite the surge in mobile communications technology, it remains a large player in communication services. Prices can vary between providers of landline services, or within plans offered by a single provider, and here are some of the reasons for that variation.

1. Location. Your landline pricing will vary based on where you live or locate your business. One survey of pricing found a variance of average local service pricing among major cities, ranging from $27.01 in Seattle, WA, to $39.22 in Minneapolis, MN.
2. Location-II. If you live in a rural area, landline prices are going to be higher than they are in more densely populated areas, unless your state regulates providers and does not allow such differences.
3. Who Owns the Lines? Landline service pricing can vary based on whether a local company owns the lines that transmit calls, or leases them from another company. It’s not always consistent, though. Either one can be cheaper or more expensive, based on line-lease costs, line maintenance costs, and cost of lease rights for land crossed by the wires.
4. Signal Strength and Speed. Local landline service companies will often vary in price based on their capacity for transmitting data at higher speeds, or in for transmitting larger quantities of data at a time, as in fax transmissions.
5. Per Call vs. Per Month. Some landline service providers will set pricing based on how many calls are made, or how long calls last, while others set prices for a time period without regard for quantity or length of calls.
6. Emergencies Only. There are a number of communities in which service providers offer extremely inexpensive plans that only allow incoming calls and calls to 911 operators, making them available for emergencies and nothing else.
7. Voice Messaging, or Not? Some landline plans come with the price of voice messaging services automatically added in, whether you want them or not.
8. Local or Local Plus? Landline service pricing may also vary based on whether you have local service only, or local service plus some long distance service. Prices may vary within these service plans, based on how large a network of long distance service is included in the billing, and whether call quantity or length can bring added charges.
9. Bundling Encouraged. Basic landline service is priced high by some providers, in order to encourage you to consider bundling phone service with internet and other types of services. You may find that it costs so little to add more services that it simply makes sense to do so. Whether you bundle or not, the company wins.
10. Because They Can. In some cases, the availability of competitive services is low, or the population base of a service area is unaware of competitive services or resistant to making changes. In these situations, the dominant company is simply able to operate with higher profit margins than would otherwise be the case.

So now you know some of the reasons that landline service prices are variable. In landline telephone service, as in any other business dealings, the rule of thumb is that the buyer needs to arm herself or himself with as much information as possible, in order to get the desired services at acceptable prices.

Taken From Landline Phone Service