Goodbye, Landlines
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Utilities were built on the principle of providing as nearly universal service as possible to people. T-Mobile's profits are based on a century of groundwork by others. Many people, the usual suspects, people who live in rural or remote locations, please who have poor or unreliable signal strength because they live in mountainous areas, the poor, the elderly, and people who aren't in the coverage areas in the first place, are the ones who will pay a material price.
You and I had a similar discussion about USPS a few years ago.
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USPS seems to be kept alive by delivering junk mail and Amazon packages.
I’m not sure how they’ll support a national network of copper lines when 90% of people stop paying for it. (It seems to be down to 24% of households now, from a high of 95% 25 years ago. But it is still shedding 1-2% per year. Older people keep them, young folks never get one)
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USPS seems to be kept alive by delivering junk mail and Amazon packages.
I’m not sure how they’ll support a national network of copper lines when 90% of people stop paying for it. (It seems to be down to 24% of households now, from a high of 95% 25 years ago. But it is still shedding 1-2% per year. Older people keep them, young folks never get one)
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@jon-nyc I don't agree with the privitization of public utilities. I have never agreed with it.
And re: USPS- it's being used as a centralized government database to assign real identities to 'official' residences. I doubt it's going anywhere.
And I've noted this before but a forensic accounting would show that its current finances are the direct result of legislation passed by Republicans to knowingly create a financial crisis, with their goal being privitization. As usual.
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The phase out is inevitable given more modern alternatives; the logic is similar to the demise of long wave radio.
Mobile phones' connectivity coverage now works well nearly everywhere (at least in our tiny country).
People prefer them because they can carry them everywhere, internationally. They now support video, and are a multifunctional computer camera calculator.
We have a copper phone landline which was used until recently for the Internet, though like many, we've had installed a fast full-fibre cable.
And probably like many households, as we decorate, we remove the old phone sockets.
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Well, I'm on 5G with a major carrier in my bedroom in the urban core of the 23rd largest US Metro and I have 1 bar now, and my phone at this time not connected to WiFi (or should we be expected to pay for WiFi to have reliable phone service?) is working and not. I could turn the WiFi on but then what's the point of mobile service?
I'm on the flattest land mass on earth. There is no inclement weather.
Good luck to everyone in the US about to be screwed by the FCC for the nth time.
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Twenty years ago, our phone company, Verizon, called me on my primitive flip phone to tell me they were going to discontinue our copper-based home line and go to new-fangled fiber optic, whatever that was. Yet they wanted my go-ahead to do so, and I was on the other coast and didn’t really understand what they were talking about.
So now we have this fiber system installed but I don’t see why it’s great, and we don’t get TV or internet service on it, and it costs $118 a month. Cable, internet and cell service are with different companies. I need to figure this out and reduce costs.
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I reduced costs by cancelling my Spectrum Internet account.
No landline.
That would be equivalent giving back 25% if what I just saved.
Hard no.
My mobile phone is Verizon via (Walmart) Straight Talk. $50
My phone was locked to Straight Talk but I think there was a limited period Straight Talk could keep it lock.
I don't think it's locked no. I have to double check.
So my next step is to lower my mobile bill.
I don't know. Tello looks like a possibility. I have to read more.
I paid my phone bill today and my goal is to change the carrier before this billing cycle ends.
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