Spark

Why this man refuses to give up his landline

Comedian Denis Grignon can't let the home landline go.

"It's about hanging on to my past": Denis Grignon

Please hang up and try your call again. (Michelle Parise)

Denis Grignon on his home landline. (Nancy Payne)

Denis Grignon is a modern man.

Sure, he lives on a farm affectionately called "The Cheese Factory," where he and his wife often snowshoe and feed birds, but the comedian, writer and father is no Luddite. He isn't anti-digital.

But if you happen to be invited to Denis's farm, you'd still find a relic of the analog age: a landline telephone.

Even though he and everyone else in his family have their own individual smartphones, they're still hanging on to the family landline.

Turns out, Denis isn't the only one.

According to a 2017 Stats Canada report, 63 per cent of Canadian households have landline phone service.

That's down from 75.5 per cent in 2014, but it's still a surprising number, considering that nearly 90 per cent of us have cell phones.

Grignon

Over in Finland, telecommunications firm Telia recently announced that they will stop offering landline service altogether. Will other countries follow suit? Or will nostalgia keep us tethered to the wall when we make our next call? 

Click above to listen to Denis Gringon's documentary about his struggle to cut the cord.

We want to know!

Do YOU still have a landline? Tell us why in the comments below!