If the World Health Organization’s recent alert about a possible link between cellphones and brain cancer was the proverbial ill wind, then Frontier Communications is trying to make sure it blows someone—that someone being Frontier—some good.
In a press release issued today, the carrier took the opportunity to advise consumers that landline telephones are the “safer choice” for voice communications.
“The WHO release states that cellphones may cause brain cancer,” said Frontier Senior Vice President Steve Crosby in the release. “Remember when the Surgeon General reported that cigarette smoking may cause lung cancer? Our position is that customers can take precautions so they do not wind up as statistics. Since approximately 90% of mobile phone calls are made within 10 feet of a landline phone, reduce risk by using your home or business phone whenever possible.”
Crosby also noted that 9-1-1 calls from a landline phone can be pinpointed with a higher level of precision than calls from a cellphone.
Frontier has been trying hard to preserve its landline phone business as much as possible. CEO Maggie Wilderotter recently noted, for example, that some families are reconnecting landline voice service so that they have a way of reaching a babysitter.
You’ve got to give Frontier a few points for thinking of the WHO angle. I would think it might give some fence-sitters that have been contemplating canceling landline voice service a reason not to do so. Perhaps it will even cause a few people who already have cut the cord to reconnect.
Not every telco will want to follow Frontier’s lead in drawing attention to potential cellphone dangers, though. Frontier can afford to make that move because it doesn’t have a cellular business. But a company such as AT&T or Verizon that offers both landline and cellular service will not want to head in that direction.