Comment by platinum1

For the majority of the history of land lines and analog phones, the phones and lines were owned by the telephone company, and leased by the consumer. This change happened in 1982, 10 years AFTER mobile phones were invented.

http://www.nytimes.com/1982/12/16/business/new-era-for-the-t...

In fact, some people still lease their phones: https://consumerist.com/2012/04/30/hundreds-of-thousands-of-...