While the phone system doesn't suck, most phones do.
My phone is an older phone, probably made during the mid 80s (around the time of the AT&T breakup—it has “BELL SYSTEM PROPERTY” stamped on the bottom) and the thing is rock solid. I've dropped the phone from desk hight plenty of times and it still looks new (if a bit yellowed).
Yet I'm talking on the phone with someone using a piece of crap and it sounds like it. Must be one of those cordless phones be cause the voice quality of the person I'm talking to is staticy and muddled and half way through the conversation the connection is lost.
And people put up with this.
He still hasn't called back, probably not aware that I've been disconnected. I can imagine him, shouting over the static, “Hello? Hello? Are you still there?”