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end of POTS in michigan!?

Started by xhausted110, December 06, 2013, 11:51:38 PM

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xhausted110

I read this article: http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/12/att_president_jim_murray_the_t.html

and, if I'm reading this right, Michigan will not require POTS in 2017? being a Michigander, I'm concerned!

oh well, AT&T seems to be in the process of ripping out older copper cable and replacing it with fiber to the curb.

bye bye POTS. it's been a nice 137 years!
- Evan

twocvbloke

It's basically legalised copper theft, given the all time high price of, ahem, "scrap" copper (a lot of it turns out to be stolen, funnily enough), anyone and everyone is trying to find as much as possible to trade it in for scrap money, and thus boost their coffers... :-\

Still, they know best, apparently, until they realise that these optical lines are dead as a dodo in a powercut and are of no use if you need to call the emergency services (well, I suppose that would save them money there, not being called out to emergencies because people can't dial out!!), as not all of the modems and ATAs come with battery backup, and not everyone thinks to use a UPS to keep such things powered up... ::)

Russ Kirk

The reason most states are looking at not requiring the carriers to provide POTS? Cell phone availability. A recent study reports 91% of adults have cell phones.  And that number is still growing. The need of communications during an emergency is shifting from needing a dedicated land line to cell phones.  Cell sites have backup generators and are reportable tot he FCC if there is an outage.  So in an emergency or power outage our cell phones should still work.

I think about my home, both my wife and I have cell phones, as do most couples we know. All single friends of ours have their own cell phones.   But even in my case with two cell phones in the house i still pay for two landlines via Verizon Fios. 

The number of cell phone only homes is also growing, currently there are over 35% cell phone only homes in the US. Most of these people are the younger generation.
- Russ Kirk
ATCA & TCI