Hard line

[Dave Wilton]

> I have the radio on to the Tony Kornheiser show on ESPN
> radio. The person
> he's interviewing (I didn't catch the name, but he's talking
> about Julia
> Roberts and not sports) referred to the delay in getting to his "hard
> line", in a context where it was clearly opposed to cell
> phone. Is this a
> locution that others have encountered?

It's used in the movie "The Matrix" (1999). In that movie it did not simply
mean a landline, but an analog (non-digital) landline. A quick google search
pulls up a handful (5) sites that use the phrase "telephone hardline." So it
doesn't appear to be in common use. It is not a telecom jargon term as far
as I know.