Goodbye to the landline?

[Bob Of Burleson]

When the Landline Is a Lifeline

By JON BRODKIN
The New York Times

AT&T and Verizon are pushing hard to shift traditional landline service, which has mostly operated over copper lines, to a system of Internet-based phones by around 2020. If the Federal Communications Commission approves the switch as is, it could come as a shock to the 96 million Americans who still rely on landlines.

The change itself is inevitable: the old copper lines are aging and expensive to maintain. And the new system is already in use. As of December 2012, 42 million Americans had Internet-based phones. But moving to an all Internet-based network will benefit Americans only if the F.C.C. is able to protect them in the shift.

The new phones have some major technical flaws. They can’t hold up during long power failures or connect all emergency phone calls. But there are also regulatory problems: The change in service could free the telecom industry from its obligation to guarantee universal access and fair prices to consumers.

As a result, people in remote or rural areas who rely on landlines could end up paying a lot for a bad deal.

So-called common carrier rules have long required phone companies to offer services to everyone, at reasonable rates. But in a series of decisions beginning in 2002, the F.C.C. classified broadband Internet as an “information service” instead of a telecommunication service, freeing it from these rules. For now, the F.C.C. hasn’t weighed in on where the Internet-based phones — also called VoIP, for voice over Internet protocol — stand, leaving them in regulatory limbo.

While the new phones all rely on the Internet, they don’t all use the same delivery mechanism. Fiber and cable are more reliable carriers than the wireless network that cellphones also rely on. Without new regulations, phone companies could refuse wired Internet service to remote areas where it’s not profitable to build it — a good 25 percent of AT&T’s service area.

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[crackertoes]

[b]When the Landline Is a Lifeline

By JON BRODKIN
The New York Times

AT&T and Verizon are pushing hard to shift traditional landline service, which has mostly operated over copper lines, to a system of Internet-based phones by around 2020. If the Federal Communications Commission approves the switch as is, it could come as a shock to the 96 million Americans who still rely on landlines.

I'm surprised that many people still have a landline.

[John in Plano]

I have a landline. Verizon has been trying to get me to switch to their internet phone service. They consider me a "copper" customer even though I've bee on the fiber optic system for years. Main reason I want a landline is 911 service, and I don't want people tracking me down when I'm away from home.
I also don't like the sound quality of cellphones.

[planosteve]

I have a landline. Verizon has been trying to get me to switch to their internet phone service. They consider me a "copper" customer even though I've bee on the fiber optic system for years. Main reason I want a landline is 911 service, and I don't want people tracking me down when I'm away from home.
I also don't like the sound quality of cellphones.

Same here but with AT&T. I get 2 or 3 mailings and several phone calls a week plus people that knock on the door. I have their landline and cell phone, but I have TW cable and internet.

[marti]

Rural. Satellite internet. Landline.
I keep saying I'm going to drop the landline and go cell only but I don't always have great cell signal.
And...911? I assume they can't find you via cell?

[OnTexasTime]

Landlines still have a dial tone when power goes out. Internet Phones don't.

For several reasons I will hold on to my landline as long as I can. It benfit's me by having it.

[John in Plano]

Landlines still have a dial tone when power goes out. Internet Phones don't.

For several reasons I will hold on to my landline as long as I can. It benfit's me by having it.

My landline will die during an extended power outage. FIOS, has a battery back up to power the phone and it dies after about 4 hours

Thats why I wonder why Verizon considers me a "copper" connection.

[FlashM]

Landlines still have a dial tone when power goes out. Internet Phones don't.

For several reasons I will hold on to my landline as long as I can. It benfit's me by having it.

My landline will die during an extended power outage. FIOS, has a battery back up to power the phone and it dies after about 4 hours

Thats why I wonder why Verizon considers me a "copper" connection.

We have FiOs TV and internet and that does.t happen with our Ooma VOIP phones. They die immediately. Do you have FiOs or Verizon installed VOIP phones, maybe?

[OnTexasTime]

Landlines still have a dial tone when power goes out. Internet Phones don't.

For several reasons I will hold on to my landline as long as I can. It benfit's me by having it.

My landline will die during an extended power outage. FIOS, has a battery back up to power the phone and it dies after about 4 hours

Thats why I wonder why Verizon considers me a "copper" connection.

We have FiOs TV and internet and that does.t happen with our Ooma VOIP phones. They die immediately. Do you have FiOs or Verizon installed VOIP phones, maybe?

If someone has nothing but cordless phones for their landlines those phones will die when the battery back-up goes dead. My wired phones never have died when the power goes out.

[marti]

yep....we have a wired phone for "just in case".

[John in Plano]

Landlines still have a dial tone when power goes out. Internet Phones don't.

For several reasons I will hold on to my landline as long as I can. It benfit's me by having it.

My landline will die during an extended power outage. FIOS, has a battery back up to power the phone and it dies after about 4 hours

Thats why I wonder why Verizon considers me a "copper" connection.

We have FiOs TV and internet and that does.t happen with our Ooma VOIP phones. They die immediately. Do you have FiOs or Verizon installed VOIP phones, maybe?

We have a couple of cordless phones and there is a wired phone upstairs. Power goes out and the cordless stop working, the wired phone works till the battery back up dies. Which happened this winter during one of the freezes.
FIOS triple play, TV/internet/landline

[OnTexasTime]

OK - I did not catch your phone was on FIOS, that makes it an Internet phone.

[John in Plano]

And for what ever reason Verizon considers my phone as being "copper".
I've been told by Verizon if I move to a "internet" connection some fees would be dropped from my bill.

[OnTexasTime]

And for what ever reason Verizon considers my phone as being "copper".
I've been told by Verizon if I move to a "internet" connection some fees would be dropped from my bill.

At some point FIOS or UVERSE runs on copper in the neighborhoods it serves, so no phoneline is completely off copper yet.

First off I am no expert, but what the ATT phone people tell me is the difference in the traditional landline and the Internet based phone lines is the switching stations they use. Landlines run through a copper based switching station and Internet phones run though a digital computer swithing station. The low voltage needed to run a landline/ground line comes down the copper wires to your phone. Those station have a back-up generator if they loose power. An Internet phone gets its power from the box plugged in the house to run Internet or TV signals and if the power goes out so does your phone (or when the back up battery dies)

[OnTexasTime]

I correct my first statement to say that new subdivisions with time warner type cable are probably all fiber for TV, Internet and Phone. Yet most likely the phone and cable wire in the house have copper.

[Bob Of Burleson]

We got new AT&T lines in our neighborhood last year and the crew chief said they were still copper.

[Gopher]

We got new AT&T lines in our neighborhood last year and the crew chief said they were still copper.

If it is Uverse, yes and no. Uverse is fiber to the curb, then copper to the house. FIOS is glass from the central office/hub to the premises.

Verizon wants to migrate some of their copper customers to something called VoiceLink. Run away, run far, far away. It is, in its simplest form a cell phone that will feed the entire house. It has some severe drawbacks as far as features and what it will run. You cannot run a fax machine, heart monitor, satellite box or an alarm system on it. If you have bad cell reception it will not work. Guess where they are trying to "make" it work.

It is such a successful system, there has been a class action lawsuit filed against the company in New Jersey. The company did not want to replace all of the copper destroyed during hurricane Sandy and FIOS is too expensive to install, so they put people on these things. Ain't nobody happy.

Copper needs to hang around for five or six more years, so I can retire and go home.

[ann jusko]

We have suddenlink. They called and offered me a flat $25 a month service. I am so glad I jumped on it. Sometimes I have to hold for a nurse or doctor in Rhode Island. We live in an area that is still a little rural. All our kids only have cells and a cell to cell call isn't the best. I usually ask them to call the house phone if I'm going to be home. I can hear the house phone ringing upstairs, downstairs, and out on the patio and have a clearer connection.

[marti]

Ann, Suddenlink is an internet provider? not satellite?

[Just Me]

Ann, Suddenlink is an internet provider? not satellite?

Cable TV, Internet, and Phone Service
http://www.suddenlink.com/