And there are places elsewhere in the world (for example, some African countries) that skipped completely landlines because mobile phones require much less pervasive infrastructure to work properly.
My mother still uses those rotary phones, BTW. Somehow the telco in her area still supports click-dialing. Incoming calls are great, every damn phone in the house rings simultaneously; sounds like a fire alarm.
I was thrilled that my ISP/Cable company didn't try to sell me their "TV and Phone" bundle because they understood the absurdity or could tell by my voice and interests that I wouldn't be interested or the target audience.
If your phone company was crap, you were kind of stuck, but they usually weren't too bad.