Interesting Article - Goodbye Phone Lines

[mwfanelli2]

This topic came up in another discussion thread but was never really settled. But here it is with the numbers: Today, 30% of the American public no longer uses a land line telephone. The numbers doing this are growing fast. The pods have converted me, they will convert you.

"For nearly three in 10 households, don't even bother trying to call them on a landline phone. They either only have a cell phone or seldom if ever take calls on their traditional phone...

"The number of wireless-only households grew by 2 percent since the first half of last year. Underscoring the rapid growth, in early 2004 just 5 percent had only cell phones."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/05/14/c....ap/index.html

[SmartWombat]

Yeah, only keep the landline for the ADSL.

[retroactiv]

My wife and I only have cellphones, it was stupid to have a land line anymore everyone called our cellphones. So we dropped the landline to save a couple bucks a month (more camera gear)

[Franglais]

Yeah, only keep the landline for the ADSL.

In France the telecom companies are investing heavily in land line equipment. Not for people to use with telephones of course - it's for ADSL and HD TV. Land lines are not going to disappear.

[mwfanelli2]

In France the telecom companies are investing heavily in land line equipment. Not for people to use with telephones of course - it's for ADSL and HD TV. Land lines are not going to disappear.

Well, I'm talking about landline telephone service. Here in the states, fiber optic is being installed to replace the old copper wire lines. The one around here is Verizon (a horrible company) and it's FIOS. They are selling the TV and broadband services and downplaying the phone line stuff.

[Medley]

I see cell phones as a redundancy, not a replacement. In any kind of disaster or emergency situation, cell phones are the first to become useless, as the airwaves get overcrowded.

I still use the good, old-fashioned copper wire landline. Storms and power outages are not infrequent where I live, and if you lose power, you lose fiber optics too.

Also, I find myself in remote areas often enough to use my landline as my message service. Sure, you can leave a message on my cellphone, but I've gotten messages on my cell that were sent to me the day before. Where they had been for that last 24 hrs, I couldn't say. People that know me well know that if they can't reach my cell phone, they should dial the landline to leave a message. Those are the messages I get first, as I can retrieve them remotely as soon as I get a decent signal.

Cell phones and fiber optics are all fine and good, and make many tasks easier. But from where I stand, the old-school stuff still has important uses.

- Joe U.

[mwfanelli2]

I see cell phones as a redundancy, not a replacement. In any kind of disaster or emergency situation, cell phones are the first to become useless, as the airwaves get overcrowded.

I still use the good, old-fashioned copper wire landline. Storms and power outages are not infrequent where I live, and if you lose power, you lose fiber optics too.

Also, I find myself in remote areas often enough to use my landline as my message service. Sure, you can leave a message on my cellphone, but I've gotten messages on my cell that were sent to me the day before. Where they had been for that last 24 hrs, I couldn't say. People that know me well know that if they can't reach my cell phone, they should dial the landline to leave a message. Those are the messages I get first, as I can retrieve them remotely as soon as I get a decent signal.

Cell phones and fiber optics are all fine and good, and make many tasks easier. But from where I stand, the old-school stuff still has important uses.

- Joe U.

Well, I've heard this one before and just don't agree. Back in the old days of wireless, towers became overloaded in emergencies. But capacity has jumped by magnitudes and that no longer happens. Also, in a real disaster, a cell phone tower is more likely to remain standing than the telephone poles holding landline wires. Rescue workers in the tornado-ripped midwest this season are all seen using cell phones, no landlines existed anymore. My brother-in-law is a state cop, they depend on cell phones in emergencies as well when they are not near their cars.

I don't know about other places, but FIOS here in Eastern Maryland is being placed underground. It is fiber optics after all. But the subject I am bringing up is landline telephone service which is being downplayed in favor of broadband and television for those fiber optic connections.

I have never had any message delayed in all my years of using a cell phone. No one has ever had a problem getting in touch with me. Actually, its easier because I have the phone with me. YMMV.

Phone companies such as Verizon do have major reception problems (in spite of their silly and misleading ads). I have been using Cingular (OK, now AT&T) for a few years and get a strong signal seemingly everywhere, places where Verizon is a goner. You just need to get a good service. By the way, try finding a landline phone in some rural area! Believe me, in the past I walked for miles and miles when I was stranded after a truck mishap. No phones at all.

Rural people may have more problems with cell service. This is because a chunk of the money you pay each month is used to subsidize building out landlines into rural areas. That is a super expensive proposition. If that money were also made available to put up cell towers in rural areas, cell phone service would improve dramatically.

Landlines won't disappear any time soon, much like film is still around and kicking for those who still want or need it. Also, the same stats show that 70% still have landlines! That will take quite a while to come down substantally. But the article states, and I believe it, that the younger generation is going for cell in a huge way, disdaining the landline. That will catch up with the landline people as geezers such as myself die off!

For me, my cell phone is a whole lot cheaper than a land line, much more convenient, and it goes where I go. Even when I had landline service years ago, almost all the calls were solicitors in spite of the no call list. I don't miss it one bit.

So, where is that cheap satellite phone service? Stupid out-of-date cell phones...!

[another view]

We had two landlines - one for home and one for my wife's business. She still has that one for the antiquated fax machine (I know...), DSL service and also Dish Network which needs to be able to dial out to tell them how many pay-per-views you've watched. I think newer Dish receivers can go out over a network on the internet, so there's one less reason. This area just got Comcast which is probably a step up from the last cable provider from what I hear. Actually I'd love to ditch the satellite TV too - I don't watch the thing often at all.

Got rid of the home landline at over $500 a year in savings plus long distance charges in favor of the cell phones we already had at a lower price with free long distance. A couple of times I've had a message delayed by a day and no idea why. But in general, I can be found a lot easier since my phone is always with me.

[Lori11]

I got rid of my landline for a savings of $125 per month and have my cell and internet through them too, HUGE savings for me. I dont miss AT&T at all lol

[Franglais]

I think someone stole my PDA/cell phone yesterday. I looked at the weather forecast in the morning before going out, then I don't remember using it all day till I noticed that the alarm didn't go off for my 3:30pm meeting. Came out of the meeting at 5pm, checked my mail - and it wasn't there any more.

OK this doesn't happen with a landline. But none of the actions I just mentioned are even possible on a land line.

Sigh. This means - I shall just have to buy a new PDA/Cell phone. An even better one..

[Medley]

Well, I've heard this one before and just don't agree. Back in the old days of wireless, towers became overloaded in emergencies. But capacity has jumped by magnitudes and that no longer happens.

Cell phone service has been cut in the wake of the massive earthquake that hit China on Monday, but landline service remains available, reports PCWorld.com.

AHN, citing the Xinhua news agency, said six transformer substations had been shut down and five power plants disconnected from the power grid after the quake. As many as 2,300 base stations in Sichuan province were paralyzed due to power shutdowns and transmission failures.

China Mobile reported call volumes surged to 10 times the normal level, while the percentage of calls connected was cut in half, according to Xinhua.

Source: http://www.itbusinessedge.com/blogs/hdw/?p=2178

PCWorld article: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscente...n_chengdu.html

The most pertinent part of this, IMO: Cell service was lost, landlines were not. Lest you think that we're talking about a technologically backward region, China is the world's largest mobile service provider, and Chengdu is China's fifth-largest city, and southwest China's largest academic center.

Apparently, there's still room for improvement.

- Joe U.

[mwfanelli2]

Last time I checked, I don't live in China! The article and my comments refer to the USA and the tornadoes and other violent weather that has been roaming the midwest. I have no idea (and not much interest) in how phone service works in other countries, especially developing nations such as China. I'm guessing phone service wasn't working all that well in Burma either.

[Medley]

Whatever you want to believe Michael. But the PCWorld.com article did point out that both Intel and SMIC have manufacturing and test facilities there. Yes Michael, that 'developing nation' is producing some of the same circuit boards used in your equipment here in the U.S. You see, it's much cheaper for companies like Intel to have,,,, well, never mind. In addition, there's this:

Oakland Tribune:

Many cell phone calls failed to get through, while some land lines were briefly spotty. And in the wake of Tuesday's quake, many people were left trying to determine how they should communicate when the next one hits.

Cell phone providers acknowledged brief disruptions in service, but say their systems aren't designed to accommodate the dramatic increases in call volume that occurred in the minutes after Tuesday's 8:04 p.m. quake.

And, in a bigger disaster, cell phone companies saypeople shouldn't count on being able to use their cell phones immediately.

Still, the phone companies, which emphasized the brief nature of Tuesday's problems, insisted that it's neither pragmatic nor economically sensible to build networks that would have enough capacity to cope with rare and extreme events.

Roger Entner, senior vice president of the communications sector for the IAG Research company, said building such a network would be like building a second bridge next to a first one, just in case one or the other collapses.

"You cannot anticipate when and where you have that kind of catastrophic failure, and it would become too expensive for people to afford it," said Entner.

source: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...1/ai_n21092572

Now, if you want to put blind trust that these same folks are going to get your cellular call through in a time of crisis, that's up to you. Me, I'd rather be safe than sorry.

The company I work for has their business communications set so that if a call fails to go through the digital line, the call is automatically forwarded to an analog landline powered by the phone company. Makes sense to me.

- Joe U.

[RP Racing]

We have to keep a land line here for medical emergencies. We've had cell towers in this area go dead after a power outage.

[mwfanelli2]

Good grief. Equipment is one thing, where it is used and how its deployed is another. China and other developing countries, notice no "quotes", are not the same as the US and other major powers. Maybe someday, not now.

Everyone can point to a situation where cell service has not worked and landlines did. I can do the opposite and site times when cell phones were running and landlines weren't (ask my neighbor!). One off situations do not prove a point. That's just like those endless nonsensical posts about "my UV filter saved my lens" to prove that filters are necessary.

For whatever it is worth, cell phones are coming up fast and landlines are stalling and starting to decline IN THE USA. That's just reality. This topic is about that, nothing more. Both versions of phone service are out there, anyone can easily choose any type of service or services they wish and whatever service they feel most comfortable about. FWIW, I hardly use my cell phone either, email is the major source of my communication. My AT&T cell plan (pay-as-you-go) has over $150 in rollover minutes.

Unless someone can come up with something new or different, I think we've exhausted this topic. At least for me...

[cookies23]

yeah. the phone lines are only for ADSL now. other than that, the cellphone can serve a better purpose and you can bring it everywhere.

[mwfanelli2]

I just couldn't resist. Yesterday, I was watching CNN and MSNBC coverage of the massive tornado that struck western Greeley and head on into Windsor Colorado. Guess what? Electricity and landline phones were all down. What was working? Cell phones! As one EMT stated to KUSA news (paraphrase): "Thank God I have my cell phone with me, it's the only thing working right now."

Don't panic. This is another example of a one-off experience that proves nothing more than the situation in China did. I just couldn't resist posting it here. I fell off my chair laughing... OK, not really, but I could have!