By Isabelle Bousquette

In most consumer households, traditional landline telephones are a relic of the past. But in the business world, they're thriving.

Hotels, hospitals, stores, customer service call centers and corporate offices across the country are still heavily reliant on these phones, commonly called "landlines," although many have moved from antiquated copper wire systems to digital systems that use internet protocol, or IP, to send data over a network.

Cost, convenience and, in some cases, regulation and liability concerns have extended their shelf life, helping players like Cisco Systems and AT&T maintain a steady phone business. Research firm Synergy Research Group estimates the market for IP phones was worth about $1.3 billion globally in 2024.

"It's a critical business," said Zee Hussain, senior vice president of global enterprise solutions at AT&T. You'll see these phones in front-of-house everywhere from hospitals to restaurants, Hussain said. They're even critical in financial institutions, he added, where they can help companies better log, record and track calls for regulatory compliance.

Cisco is selling fewer landlines to corporate knowledge workers than it once was, said Snorre Kjesbu, senior vice president and general manager of collaboration, employee experience technology at the company. But there's consistent demand from key areas, such as office-building receptions and hotels.

A typical 250-room hotel will have more than 300 individual physical phones -- including at least one phone in every room, plus in other areas like reception, lobby, fitness centers and back of office, according to Steve Bearden, vice president of hosted voice for hospitality tech provider Allbridge.

Some U.S. jurisdictions require hotels to provide phones in every guest room. But even in areas that don't, hotels can be held liable if they don't have one and a guest with patchy cell service needs to dial 911.

"For the hotel space, I definitely don't see it going anywhere anytime soon," said Cole Baker, vice president of hospitality management services at Oldham Goodwin. The hotel operator and developer manages seven hotels across Texas, comprising four Marriotts, one Hyatt and two Best Westerns.

Beyond ensuring there's a phone for emergencies, he added, guests also do use the phones to dial reception or room service. Removing them would detract from the customer experience, he said.

Oldham Goodwin's corporate office also has physical phones at its employees' desks for those who opt to use them, Baker added.

While speaking with The Wall Street Journal, Baker confirmed he was calling in from his landline.

If one were to walk into the offices of New York Life Insurance today, they would find a physical phone on every desk, said Kevin Glynn, the insurer's chief technology officer. That may not be the case a year from now.

Glynn said he's working to migrate from these physical desk phones to a software system that includes online calling functions and maintains individual phone numbers for each employee. It's a shift he expects will be more seamless for employees and more cost-effective for the company.

But the transition won't be without challenges. Glynn led a similar effort in his previous role, finding that there was a small community "that was like: 'No, you're going to pry my handset out of my cold, dead fingers.'"

At Will McDermott & Emery, Shawn Helms, the law firm's co-head of technology & outsourcing practice, still has a phone at his desk, and so do many of his colleagues, he said. Still, Helms said the biggest reason he thinks they're still used at the firm is simply habit.

AT&T's Hussain said there are other critical reasons companies might want to keep them. Some feel it creates a clearer separation between work calls and personal use, especially in regulated industries like finance where calls have to be logged and monitored, he said.

AT&T's landline handsets are also designed to make work functions, including transferring, merging and recording calls, seamless, Hussain said. Sometimes doing those things on a smartphone isn't as straightforward, he added.

And AT&T and Cisco have continued to invest in and develop their landline offerings. Cisco, for example, is actively embedding AI-powered features such as background noise reduction into its phones -- continuing to push investment in a category it believes is here for the long run.

"In consumer, we don't use them that much anymore," said Cisco's Kjesbu about the phones. But he added that in business, "It's actually a massive necessity."

Write to Isabelle Bousquette at isabelle.bousquette@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

McDermott Will & Emery is the law firm that still has many landline phones. "Why the Business World Can't Let Go of Landline Phones," at 7 a.m ET, misstated the firm's name as Will McDermott & Emery.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 11, 2025 12:05 ET (16:05 GMT)

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