Posted on 02/07/2024 7:12:37 PM PST by thecodont
A proposal by phone and internet service provider, AT&T, to end landline service for most Californians is drawing backlash.
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
Sigh.
Yes, believe it or not, there are some people who don’t have a cell, and don’t have a computer, and don’t have cable or satellite.
Not all people can afford it. Some don’t want it.
But then, maybe this will result in some people simply not having any telephone ability at all, so we’ll partly be back in 1870. Especially when a hurricane comes by.
“It’s probably cheaper to provide everybody a basic cellphone to ensure everybody can call 911 than to keep landlines going”
The PSTN landline system was designed to survive a 1950’s style multimegaton attack. Cell towers and their electronics? Heh. And then, there are capacity issues.
Thanks Jonty30...
That’s a good point.
As long as they leave the Telefon system in place.
(I remember AUTOVON from decades ago.)
No. It sucks. We were totally upset when Verizon forced the “update” on us. You need to mount a ridiculous battery back-up pack inside your house. And as all batteries, it’ll only last maybe 12 hours.
We kept our landline but it is not as foolproof as it was 10 years ago. Especially if power goes out indefinitely, like a few hurricanes and snowstorms have done for up to a week.
Thanks. Good points...
Bad idea! Cell phone communication security is non existent and the service can become unreliable, especially when power outages occur and the cellular service can easily be controlled by hackers as well as the government. Again, Bad idea!
Remember 9/11?
Even cell phones - and those were not high-power “smartphones minicomputers - clog up the lines and can’t get thru.
Plus, it’ll be easy to pay your phone bill with Biden’s new digital currency. Pay it over your phone.
No landline, no cash. Life will be so simple.
I haven’t had a landline in years now. If I was really worried about cell phone reception being an issue I would simply get an iPhone 14 or 15 and utilize the SOS feature.
Landlines would not have made a difference, I think.
Fibre optics can handle a lot more data than the copper lines of landlines.
The issue in that situation would be available manpower. One person handling calls will handle the same number of calls, whether on a landline or cell phone.
*In some places, we are metaphorically running a train line for a single person just because they don’t want to buy a car. It should be a gradual thing, to where formally unserviceable counties are now being serviced.*
You are so right. The news report suggests the sky’s falling on the weakest amongst us.
ATT does have an out. They can sell or GIVE their network to Frontier. Let them maintain it.m Price will go up regardless.
About 25 years ago, our ancient AT&T twisted pair copper line was squirrel chewed and corroded. Our early ADSL service would routinely collapse to under 1 MBps. It took so many calls to get the damn company to do anything about it we finally switched to Comcast to get Internet and phone service over coaxial cable.
Now Comcast has MANY outages that last up to an hour. Since mid December, I’ve logged 40 outages totaling 732 minutes occurring in 14 different days. They offered me a paltry $20 credit! They had a tech come out and he found a bad squirrel chew on the cable at the pole and a “pull” on a connector. Fixed those but no improvement.
There is old, decrepit, unmaintained outside plant everywhere.
Fiber optic is on our landlines, unfortunately, now.
I believe real mechanical lines handle this better. I think cellular will crash before real live wires, everything else being the same. But who really knows right now with the changes on-going.
except that’s where the cable/internet usually comes from...
it’s not an issue to leave them inplace, i mean, it’s not like they dont charge for it
In California with the natural disasters and high cost of labor, fixing damaged phone lines has to be costly. So AT&T has a point. Plus the selling point to the government is….. “everyone get tracked”.
Yes, more so now than it was in 2001.
I wouldn’t argue with that.
“ending landline would allow resources to be spent putting up towers “
I live in an metro area.
The cell service goes out in the same exact places that it did 35yrs ago.
This includes a section of a major highway, random places in people’s homes etc......I was just remarking to someone the insane lack of improvement.
You made some convincing points but my experience is that cell service is largely unchanged in 35yrs and not very reliable. I don’t believe for a second that ending landlines would bring about some abrupt change.
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.