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The end of POTS?

Started by Phonesrfun, March 20, 2011, 12:51:45 PM

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Greg G.

#30
Quote from: GG on March 22, 2011, 05:42:38 PM
Brinybay: you're the only other person I know who has a copy of that book.  To paraphrase: "....and all this so that consumers could have a phone shaped like a duck, that quacks when it rings..."  Actually, all that so that various other players could move in and carve out a slice of a very lucrative pie for themselves.

Actually, I have about 4 or 5 copies of that book.  I give them to people I come in contact with who are interested in reading how greed and ignorance destroyed the best telephone system in the world.  They can be found on Amazon. You may even get a "free prize" in a used copy: http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=5791.0.  
The idea that a four-year degree is the only path to worthwhile knowledge is insane.
- Mike Row
e

Phonesrfun

-Bill G

trainman

Well, that article is disturbing. Why does everyone think old is outdated. Soemtimes old works better, or should beleft alone as a redundant means of communication.

Better restore your old phones now.

They only talked about VOIP. What about cellular? oh, that's a different network.

Jerry P

Service to my house is fiber from the CO to the house. I'm served by a small mostly rural co-op company. The fiber connects to a battery box and charger installed by the telco in the basement. I have not explored it's functions but it seems to perform all the expected functions usually supplied by the CO of battery, ringing current generation and rotary dial translation. During a recent area wide power failure the POTS line served by it worked with no problems. Not sure what the battery life might be during a power failure if you stayed continuously off hook. The fiber also provides my internet service which continued to work. Computers all shut down but the router on my own UPS service continued to work with battery powered computers. POTS service is required here as cell phones all read "no Service." Seems like failure of POTS service on fiber may be related to attempting to keep profits up.

GusHerb

Our POTS line just got a one year "renewal" on it's life. Prices went up and got out of hand. Called in and they switched some things around to get my price (before federal access charge and the 1 billion other taxes) down from 39 to 31 a month. (one year pricing)

Originally called in to have the multi ring number converted to it's own line so I could port the main line to Vonage or some other reputable VOIP provider and this happened instead. Total bill should be about the same, approx 64 dollars.

On top of this were gonna have a second POTS line again! (for now)
Jonathan

dsk

The end of POTS?

Well, I cant see the end, but we are close to the middle just here  ;D

How deep should the cable be buried?

My guess is 2 inch, or 5 cm before it rains.

dsk


twocvbloke

Nah, that's nothing, back in the town we used to live in, there was a small road to which alongside ran a load of phonelines, and for some reason, BT decided it was a brilliant idea to leave the joints, consisting of rather old looking jelly crimps, fully exposed, sticking out of the ground, all the individual wires exposed to the elements, and animals, and copper thieves..... :D

I was going to try and show it on google maps, but unfortunately the cameras they use couldn't focus on the area where they wires were... ::)

McHeath

Once again I had to call out AT&T service guy out to find another twisted pair back to the CO to get rid of the static.  We do this dance every year or two now.  There's a big service box in the neighbors front yard, and the techs go in there and find a clean pair of wires and hook us up to it.

The techs have all said that hardly anyone is using the POTS copper anymore, so they have lots of wires to choose from. 

They also say that AT&T has no interest in repairing the copper, and wants it to go away. 

It's cheap service though, $18.25 a month. 

My son up in Montana uses the Magicjack dealio, it works well for him and he's got it connected to a vintage phone, so that's hopeful.   :)

twocvbloke

With us moving this weekend, we have to have the phoneline moved over to the new house, I've mentioned it before, but I'll do it again, it's a really easy job for the BT man, all they have to do is swap the connections from the old house to the new house, cos it's just across the street and on the same telegraph pole, about a 5 minute job all in all, but because it's an account with Primus and not BT, apparently it'll take three weeks to accomplish, to do a 5 minute job...... ::)

I could probably do it myself if I had them tone generator things and a tracer probe, especially while I have access to both houses... ::)

At least it gives me a few weeks to install extensions round the house, seeing as it lacks any for whatever reason (there were no signs of there ever being any extensions before the landlords started working on fixing the place up), that'll be a fun job I'm sure... :D

dsk

In some areas the copper are still the only way to get internet, so  ??? ??? ??? They have desided to phase out POTS, but keep on delivering ADSL. How this is business are to not understandable from my point of view. 

dsk

Phonesrfun

Not far from my house on a country road, there is a phone company pedestal where the underground cable comes up to a junction box, then goes right back down into the ground.  The thing is only maybe 3 feet tall and about a foot square around.  Green steel cabinet.  About a year ago someone hit the thing with their car and took out the cover of the cabinet.  Probably smashed it to smithereens.  The phone company dutifully tied a plastic trash bag over the top of it to keep the rain and weather out, but instead of putting a new replacement cover on it, they have replaced the bag a couple times when the plastic gets all torn up.

Things just aint what they used to be.
-Bill G

Jim Stettler

At least they replace the bag occasionally, around here they seldom replace the bags.
Jim
You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.

twocvbloke

Quote from: dsk on June 12, 2013, 01:34:07 AM
In some areas the copper are still the only way to get internet, so  ??? ??? ??? They have desided to phase out POTS, but keep on delivering ADSL. How this is business are to not understandable from my point of view. 

dsk

Personally I don't understand it either, if they're using the lines for ADSL, then they can use them for voice too, as happens in a lot of countries, if you rely on the ADSL to run a VOIP device, and said ADSL cuts out due to a bad line or a fault, then you have no voice service, whereas a line with both, the ADSL can go down, but the voice tends to keep working, maybe with a bit of static, but still works nonetheless... :-\

And the sad thing is, over here, with BT "Infinity" fibreoptic broadband, it's not even fibre to your house, it's fibre to a point, and hey presto, it gets converted to copper a few streets away, so, you still need a copper line to your house to get the fibreoptic broadband, which isn't fibreoptic... :o

I can understand why they want to ditch something that requires investment of time and money, it's cos the shareholders want the money for themselves, and if they get all the money, there's none left to maintain the network, and so they say that they're cutting it back to reduce costs, but forget to mention they're maximising profits too, so all in all, it's profit driven, people want to make money, and other people have to suffer losing a  service that works because someone else wants to buy a shiny new Mercedes... ::)

dsk

The plans are no P.O.T.S. in Norway by the end of 2017. The first municipality started august 31.
All customers are "guaranteed" a replacement by fiber or mobile network for internet and telephony. Alarms and other safety equipment are not covered.

dsk

GusHerb

Quote from: McHeath on June 12, 2013, 12:20:53 AM
Once again I had to call out AT&T service guy out to find another twisted pair back to the CO to get rid of the static.  We do this dance every year or two now.  There's a big service box in the neighbors front yard, and the techs go in there and find a clean pair of wires and hook us up to it.

The techs have all said that hardly anyone is using the POTS copper anymore, so they have lots of wires to choose from. 

They also say that AT&T has no interest in repairing the copper, and wants it to go away. 

It's cheap service though, $18.25 a month. 

My son up in Montana uses the Magicjack dealio, it works well for him and he's got it connected to a vintage phone, so that's hopeful.   :)

Our line for the first time ever now hums like crazy whenever it rains. I scheduled an appt last thursday when it started raining, but never heard from anyone. Everything was dry and quiet by monday so I just cancelled it. Usually they respond next day.

What's more sad to me is that there won't be any equally as reliable replacement (I would gladly accept FTTH though but that seems like a far off dream)

I ordered a POTS line for my mom's business since we're now moving to real VOIP (moving away from Comcast digital voice), and we need a line for back up. I'm curious how that's gonna play out since the lines there have always been problematic, and I  think mostly abandoned by now.  Everyone on this block is on Comcast. 
Jonathan