Goodbye, Landlines

Daniel

Verizon seeks FCC approval to phase out copper landlines

My late sister predicted this would happen.

I was looking forward to adding a house phone for the quality reception.

I bet every company will do the same.

I guess I might do it. Maybe not.

It would be nice to talk on a telephone at home without the risk of hanging up on a caller by doing something stupid like accidentally tapping your cellphone against your head, accidentally touching the screen, etc.

Having a cheap plastic phone instead of a Bell telephone is a given but being connected to the same cell tower system you use anyway?

Another great 100+ year old invention gone.

IDK

Daniel

I went around my house and looked at the c. 1972 AT&T phone outlets. It still has them.

In the kitchen, the living room, the bedroom..

I can imagine people living here back then.

I wonder if they still work.

jon-nyc

It must be really expensive to maintain for so few users.

Daniel

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.

jon-nyc

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)

Bernard

It's probably time to revisit the '70s USPS reorganization. USPS was federally funded up until then. It seems to me that getting it at least partially federally funded would be a good idea. A lot has happened with technology since then.

Daniel

@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.

AndyD

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.

WTF-Beta

Goodbye, Landlines