Posted on 11/13/2021 4:59:45 PM PST by DJ MacWoW
The wireless networks that underpin an assortment of devices, including life-alert alarms, older cellphones and tablets, are about to shut down, an action that consumer advocates say will leave some of society's most vulnerable people without critical communications tools.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
re: “Where I live they turned off 3G. However there is nothing to replace it. Now I have no signal at all. My phone is capable of 4G”
It’s PROBABLY because your phone won’t do “VoLTE”. Voice over LTE.
LOOK up your phone’s capability - anything iPhone 6s or later should work, as they do VoLTE *and* 4G.
I have a 6s, don’t know if a plain 6 is VoLTE capable, but I do know previous models WILL NOT BE COMPATIBLE with VoLTE, the new voice standard for making VOICE PHONE CALLS.
Meanwhile, our phones are jammed with more needless “second verification” texts where commerce stops until you acknowledge the text. Go figger.
AT&T isn't even pretending to try and properly maintain landlines any more they are being phased out. They will be replaced by low orbit satellites for true nationwide coverage.
The phone line for my road has been on the ground and bare wires exposed for 3 years now. I finally got tired of paying for part time service and had it shut off. I use my cell phone through my satellite internet service on WIFI calling. It works on calls better than the cell towers where I live.
Go drive down any highway and look where the phone companies are leaving underground buried cable pedestals opened, doors missing, wires hanging out. My dad was a 45 year Bell employee and retired in about 1993. He would have been fired for doing what AT&T is allowed to go on now. Landlands will be gone within a decade maybe less.
It is going to be quite some time before the networks are only 5G.
I know it didn't go into reasonably populated rural areas where no wired broadband service is available and cell service minimal. Companies like COMCAST are getting choice pickings in where they go with these funds. About 10 years ago COMCAST stopped about a third of a mile from my house. I called and asked about having it ran up my road and was told we needed to pay them $30K. Well they are now less than a quarter mile from me 5 spans to be exact and now they want $15K from people on my road first. AT&T Central Office is about 7 miles away so no DSL.
About 4 years ago I called what was then Excede now Viasat to get satellite broadband and I have decent enough broadband service for me and my TV has been from Direct TV for a long time. Before that I was on dial up internet.
One thing I really like and do have an advantage over Comcast and even AT&T on. When the power goes off I simply hook up one of my several emergency 120 volt back ups and I'm back on line and have TV while COMCAST and AT&T are out LOL. As soon as they get the low orbit satellite grid up to full speed both the cell phone companies and AT&T landline will sink like a rock. Actually AT&T is being quiet about it but they are pretty rapidly phasing out landline service by simply not maintaining it any longer. At best now all they do on landlines are jury rigged temporary fixes that the company would have fired workers for doing 20 years ago. The land line grid is fixing to collapse people.
The second option is some power companies are now offering Broadband over the electrical grid. these two will be the future soon.
“Amps ARE still illegal!”
Yes, but because of the mass noncompliance since the 70s everyone who is anyone has one. Far too many to regulate or enforce. There are 2000 watt kickers out there. and Hammers with legal kickers are using the 11 meter CB band all the time even though they are not supposed to.
We have started a channel 1 patriot CB club/neighborhood watch around here. Trying to get it spread around the country. 11 meter is just about dead, no one using CB much anymore because it is not as popular as it used to be. But if we don’t use it we will lose it is how we look at it. So we are trying to bring it back. :)
Even an old 23 channel that can be found for $5 at a yard sale will work just fine.
“3G was insecure, you could be snooped on.”
I feel better knowing that we can’t be spied on with 5G. /s
I loved our landline, but when AT&T installed optical cable in our subdivision we got rid of it. Before that we could use it during power outages. We learned that the optical won’t work without power.
“I HATE touch screen crap!”
Ditto. Virtual keyboards are toys. Physical keyboards are serious.
People should have a choice. Some of us do no streaming, no gaming, no email, etc., on our phones. We should be able to do our basic calling, texting, and occasional data like GPS, at a slower speed of we want to.
They’re not doing it specifically to piss us off, but they ARE pissing us off to appeal to the children, and to spy on us more easily.
re: “he second option is some power companies are now offering Broadband over the electrical grid. these two will be the future soon. “
THIS tech, BPL, is dead.
re: “All phones since 1990 are easily traced.”
These ppl have NO recollection of the CALEA Act which passed during Bill Clinton’s administration ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_Assistance_for_Law_Enforcement_Act
The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), also known as the “Digital Telephony Act,” is a United States wiretapping law passed in 1994, during the presidency of Bill Clinton (Pub. L. No. 103-414, 108 Stat. 4279, codified at 47 USC 1001-1010).
CALEA’s purpose is to enhance the ability of law enforcement agencies to conduct lawful interception of communication by requiring that telecommunications carriers and manufacturers of telecommunications equipment modify and design their equipment, facilities, and services to ensure that they have built-in capabilities for targeted surveillance, allowing federal agencies to selectively wiretap any telephone traffic; it has since been extended to cover broadband Internet and VoIP traffic. Some government agencies argue that it covers mass surveillance of communications rather than just tapping specific lines and that not all CALEA-based access requires a warrant.
I don’t know what’s in the article, I’m not going to read it, but here is what Verizon plans to do regarding turning down 3G:
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
By December 31st, 2022, Verizon Wireless plans to retire their 2G and 3G CDMA networks in favor of 4G LTE and 5G NR.
Customers with CDMA-only devices (as well as older 4G LTE that do not support HD Voice) will be required to upgrade their devices by the shutoff date.
Verizon stopped activating CDMA-only devices on their network in 2018, and had previously planned to shut down 3G service in 2019, but extended the timeline for shutting down the 3G network twice — first to December 31st, 2020, and then to December 31, 2022, which the VP of Network Engineering says “will not be extended again.”
The company indicated the delays were in an effort to “minimize disruptions” to its customers still utilizing the 3G network.
Less than 1% of Verizon’s customers were still using 3G, as of March 2021, and many of the 3G-connected devices are integrated devices, such as smart utility meters and home burglar alarms.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_over_LTE
A major utility next county over from me is going to it. The technogy is there utilities have been using their own system for quite some time now. When was the last time you saw a meter reader? https://www.kub.org/about/about-kub/kub-service-areas/century-ii/meter-modernization/broadband-services-public-forum I live in a rural county or area and even my meter is automatically read.
They have been threatening to shut off 3G for a couple of years.
I am keeping my old clunker phone until they actually shut off the service.
So far it is just talk talk talk talk....
re: “When was the last time you saw a meter reader?”
The ENTIRE Oncor distribution network for meter reading in Texas is WIRELESS. I think you CONFLATE different technologies, especially what was to be consumer (access) BPL with power line PLC (power line communications) which is LOW DATA RATE meant for control and billing purposes only.
Also, DON’T conflate Goubau Line technology (single-wire transmission line) for so-called BPL.
re: “offering Broadband over the electrical grid. “
Oh look, you attempt to mislead! Or, you just plain, straight away DON’T understand the tech or what you read.
HERE is what the link you provide says:
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
KUB’s Fiber and Broadband Plan
KUB was recently approved by its governing bodies and regulators to upgrade its electric grid by installing an extensive fiber system, which will provide more reliable electric services, better efficiency, and shorter downtimes in the event of power outages. The fiber system will also enable KUB to offer cheaper, ultra-fast internet to all households and businesses in its electric grid service area.
- - - - - - - - - - -
SO, they are putting in FIBER, and NOT “Broadband over the electrical grid”.
As I said BPL is DEAD. Read about it here in the CONCLUDED (deactivated) BPL deployments:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_broadband_over_power_line_deployments
We still have our old 23 channel Allied. It's packed away but it's there.
It’s just as insecure, but most PD don’t have 5G cell stingers yet.
They still have 3G..
I ended up with a bunch over the years, been giving them away and helping hook them up if they buy or find an antenna. :)
They work just great on channel 1. Hook yours up! Spread the word! Let’s make this network happen!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.