The Progression of Technology: Landline to Mobile to VoIP Lines
For nearly a century, landlines were the only means by which a call could be transmitted from one phone to another. In merely the last 25 years, landline technology has been steadily eclipsed by cellphone and VoIP lines.
The first challenge to landline supremacy was in 1984, with the launch of the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, the first commercially available handheld cellular phone approved by the FCC, which sold for a whopping $3,995 (approximately $12,894 in 2025 dollars when adjusted for inflation).
Throughout the 1980s through the early 90’s, mobile phones remained a luxury product with slow adoption due to high costs, limited network coverage, and bulky hardware. By the mid to late 90’s, prices dropped, networks expanded, and phones became smaller and more affordable, leading to greater ownership. By the early 2000s, cell phones had shifted from luxury items to common household technology, with Pew Research showing US adult cellphone ownership rising from 62% in 2002 to over 76% by 2007 and above 90% by the 2010s.
VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) lines were first introduced as a telecommunications medium in the early 1970s as experimental technology, but the first successful two-way real-time voice data transmission over the ARPANET occurred in 1974 using linear predictive coding (LPC) to compress and send voice data packets across a digital network.
VoIP technology developed alongside the commercial internet, but remained obscure until 1995, when the first commercially available VoIP application, “Internet Phone” by VocalTec Communications, brought consumer VoIP to the public, enabling voice calls from one PC to another over the internet.
Fast forward to 2025, where a significant and growing percentage of US phone numbers are now assigned to VoIP services, though precise estimates vary depending on how numbers are allocated and used.
Estimated Percentage of US Numbers Assigned to VoIP
All phone numbers in the US, whether landline, mobile, or VoIP, are assigned under the same North American Numbering Plan, with VoIP carriers receiving blocks of numbers for allocation to end-users.
According to the most recent FCC-reported data, VoIP adoption has overtaken traditional switched landline service in the United States, both for business and residential fixed-line voice connections. By the end of 2020, the FCC reported 79.4 million VoIP subscriptions in the US, with 68.7 million classified as retail VoIP (primarily consumer and small business use)
As of the most current FCC reports, VoIP accounts for more than half of all wired voice subscriptions in the US, surpassing traditional copper landlines as early as 2016. FCC figures show sustained double-digit annual growth of VoIP subscriptions, with VoIP’s portion of fixed lines reaching 57% by 2017 and growing steadily since.
According to some statistics, virtually all new residential landline installations in the 2020s are VoIP-based, as carriers phase out legacy landlines nationally. However, accurate, up-to-date breakdowns by service (VoIP vs. legacy landline/wireless) are not always published, but the numbers below reflect industry consensus and regulatory data.
- Business Use: As of recent industry data, about 31–35% of businesses in the US use VoIP phone systems.
- Residential Growth: Residential VoIP lines in the US grew from around 28 million to 76.6 million between 2010 and 2018, indicating rapid mainstream adoption.
- Total Market Share: An estimated 34% of US citizens were subscribed to VoIP by 2020, a percentage likely to have increased through 2025.
- Industry Analysis: North America is projected to retain a 40% share of the global VoIP market by 2025, driven by both commercial and residential adoption.
Legacy providers like AT&T and Comcast now issue landline service by default over VoIP unless copper is specifically required. In fact, FCC and industry data suggest more than 80% of US residential fixed voice lines are provisioned via VoIP platforms as of 2025, a figure that continues to rise, a transition reflecting both technological shifts in telecom networks and changes in residential communication habits.
