{"id":616,"date":"2025-05-09T18:21:51","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T23:21:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/benoit.marcoux.ca\/blog\/?p=616"},"modified":"2025-06-02T18:23:44","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T23:23:44","slug":"from-rotary-phones-to-smartphones-and-what-it-teaches-us-about-the-energy-transition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benoit.marcoux.ca\/blog\/from-rotary-phones-to-smartphones-and-what-it-teaches-us-about-the-energy-transition\/","title":{"rendered":"From Rotary Phones to Smartphones \u2014 And What It Teaches Us About the Energy Transition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

(LinkedIn: https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/pulse\/from-rotary-phones-smartphones-what-teaches-us-energy-benoit-marcoux-yaqme\/<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rotary phones were robust, lasted decades, needed no charging, and offered excellent sound quality. They cost little and rarely failed. By contrast, today\u2019s smartphones are expensive, fragile, replaced every few years, and need daily recharging\u2014yet deliver poorer sound quality during calls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So why did the world switch?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because smartphones do more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They don\u2019t just make calls\u2014they connect us to work, maps, media, social networks, banking, photography, and entertainment. In short, the value<\/em> they deliver goes far beyond the original function of telephony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a key insight for the energy transition.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, the old system was reliable and cheap. Fossil fuels are dense, dispatchable, and the infrastructure is mature. But like rotary phones, it\u2019s a legacy system optimized for a past reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clean electricity\u2014solar panels, heat pumps, EVs, batteries\u2014may seem costly, fragile, or less “plug-and-play” to some. But it opens the door to more value<\/em>: cleaner air, energy independence, digital controls, decentralized resilience, long-term cost stability, and new services and industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The energy transition, like the telecom revolution, is not just a replacement. It’s an upgrade. And just as we didn\u2019t adopt smartphones because they were cheaper or simpler, we won’t transition to clean energy just because it\u2019s cheaper per kWh. We\u2019ll do it because it\u2019s better<\/em>\u2014in more ways that matter.<\/p>\n

\r\n Shortlink:\r\n https:\/\/benoit.marcoux.ca\/blog\/from-rotary-phones-to-smartphones-and-what-it-teaches-us-about-the-energy-transition\/<\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n\r\n
\r\n \r\n \"\"\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\n \"\"\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\n \"\"\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\n \"\"\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\n \"\"\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\n \"\"\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\n \"\"\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\n \"\"\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\n \"\"\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n <\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(LinkedIn: https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/pulse\/from-rotary-phones-smartphones-what-teaches-us-energy-benoit-marcoux-yaqme\/) Rotary phones were robust, lasted decades, needed no charging, and offered excellent sound quality. They cost little and rarely failed. By contrast, today\u2019s smartphones are expensive, fragile, replaced every few years, and need daily recharging\u2014yet deliver poorer sound quality during calls. So why did the world switch? Because smartphones do more. They don\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,11,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-transition","category-future-of-utilities","category-telecom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benoit.marcoux.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benoit.marcoux.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benoit.marcoux.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benoit.marcoux.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benoit.marcoux.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/benoit.marcoux.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":618,"href":"https:\/\/benoit.marcoux.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616\/revisions\/618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benoit.marcoux.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benoit.marcoux.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benoit.marcoux.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}