In Europe, the coming of cell phones brought lower phone bills and better service. I spent 1998 and 1999 in the former East Germany and found it was a mistake to get a landline from Deusche Telecom and I should have just gotten a "handy" instead but I grew up in a country that had a regulated monopoly telecom (AT&T) as opposed to a government- or post-office- run phone company. In Europe, cell phones brought competition and lower prices.

In the US, on the other hand, phone bills went up as cell phones came in, and the quality of the service went way down.