Even large firms are cutting landlines

While tech companies and startups were early adopters of landline-free offices, the benefits of cutting the cord have become so great that bigger companies are following suit. Leo Burnett ditched its physical phones in November. The ad agency's 1,600-plus Chicago workers now have Bluetooth headsets, and voicemails are immediately transcribed to e-mail. Many employees automatically forward their work numbers to their cellphones. Even old-line professional services and law firms have moved away from traditional landline phone systems, prompted by updates to their buildings' cabling, their executives' need for secure communication channels outside the office and the desire for such extra capabilities as voicemail-to-email transcription. The first baby step toward ditching a desk phone involves switching from traditional copper cables, which for decades composed the backbone of telephone service, to fiber that allows voice-over-IP systems to connect landline phones via the Internet.