The end of POTS?

[poplar1]

I was just informed by AT&T that the home telephone line I have had for 20 years will need to be transferred to their fiber VoIP service. They say they are decommissioning the copper in my neighborhood now that fiber is available. I have no choice in the matter. If I decline to transfer the number, my POTS will be disconnected regardless.

Be sure to port your number to another carrier before AT&T disconnects your line. You can try Google Voice ($20 one-time fee), Magicjack ($19.95 one- time fee + $35. - $50 a year) or Boostmobile Cellular ($20 fee + $15 per month for unlimited calls and unlimited text messages and 2 gigs of data).

[MMikeJBenN27]

To listen in on "analog" calls, you need a remote location or a telephone truck, and a crew to illegally climb up the poles.  The average teenager or young guy in his early 20s can't afford that.  The other way is to break into a telephone cabinate, which can result in jail time.  I say it is easier to hack a cell phone call, because the hacker doesn't have to be at the location. 

Mike

[dsk]

I have had this interest since I was a boy, and in the late 70ies  a club I had joined had rented a "house" in the woods for a weekend.

Two of us went a trip in the woods (197x), and at one point the phone cable was so low that I could reach it, so I used my pocket knife and removed the insulation of a pair (with a distance of approx 4 inch) and clipped on my d.i.y but set. Directly in on an conversation between a local and the local police and a person complaining about one of the older members that was old enough to have a drivers license, and had parked where he should not.   When we went back we told him that we had overheard a conversation that someone was mad about his parking, hi solved it, and did not ask how we had heard that     The one and only time I have done that.

When I served we just used an unlocked cabinet on a pole, and called to redirect the bus that should pick us up. I guess that was a non army line.

[tubaman]

What I was trying to say earlier is that a lot of POTS calls go onto an IP based network route once they get to the exchange anyway so all that is happening with VOIP is that IP part is being extended back to your house. Once your phone calls are in the mix with the rest of the internet traffic it's not going to be so easy to listen in.
The only part of it that bothers me is the inability to use the phone during a power cut, but thankfully they are rare where I live and it's not so difficult to get around that one anyway.

[dsk]

Here in Norway even the IP-telephony looks like it is dying out. :-)

We gave it up recently, a sim-card adapter connected trough an ATA to the VOIP PABX is one working solution.
The other is solution is the 2 step system of Sipbroker.   Sipbroker does of-course not understand pulse, but I have found how to put it in to the cellphone register so I just call one single number.  (The local sipbroker number) comma  *0114711  and it rings at home in Norwegian day-time.   

[MMikeJBenN27]

That's one of the other things that I don't like about VIOP - I have to buy and maintain the batteries if I want a service that is independent of P.G.&E.  If I am eventually forced to go to VOIP, I will wish that they would revive the #6 Dry Cells.

[tubaman]

That's one of the other things that I don't like about VIOP - I have to buy and maintain the batteries if I want a service that is independent of P.G.&E.  If I am eventually forced to go to VOIP, I will wish that they would revive the #6 Dry Cells.

I agree it's far from ideal. Here in the UK there was a requirement for Openreach (our POTS network provider) to provide battery backup units when full fibre internet was installed, but they have managed to worm their way out of that one (https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2018/10/openreach-to-stop-providing-battery-backup-for-fttp-broadband.html).

[ka1axy]

Be sure to port your number to another carrier before AT&T disconnects your line. You can try Google Voice ($20 one-time fee), Magicjack ($19.95 one- time fee + $35. - $50 a year) or Boostmobile Cellular ($20 fee + $15 per month for unlimited calls and unlimited text messages and 2 gigs of data).

I'm using OOMA...$5/mo plus tax. I think there might have been  a porting fee but it was nominal and I don't remember how much it was. You can often find their TELO device on Goodwill or eBay cheaper than at Amazon.

You might want to let AT&T convert your landline to fiber, then you'll have fiber to your home at their expense, should you decide to get fiber internet, where normally you'd need to pay an installation fee. It's what I did when Verizon gave me the same ultimatum. Kept the landline for a month, then transferred the number to OOMA (I had Comcast at the time). Later, when FIOS dropped their price and upped their speed, I switched to FIOS because I had the fiber already installed!  Once I was happy with it, I dropped Comcast. FIOS offered me 200M symmetric (reliably measures 300) for $40 while Comcast was 100/20 for $75.  They used to be neck and neck, but I'm not complaining and glad I have the option.

[19and41]

I also have OOMA.  I like that my voicemail service posts on my Email with the recording, the call logs and the multiple tiers of call screening/blocking.  If you should buy a TELO device, be sure they provide a transfer code, otherwise there is a fee for transferring the device to your name.

[ka1axy]

That's one of the other things that I don't like about VIOP - I have to buy and maintain the batteries if I want a service that is independent of P.G.&E.  If I am eventually forced to go to VOIP, I will wish that they would revive the #6 Dry Cells.

I have a UPS on my router, OOMA box and PBX. It will keep them up for a couple of hours. After that, I'll use my cell. We rarely have outages, but storms will sometimes kill the power..

One source for free or low cost UPS is companies that prefer to buy a new UPS, rather than replace the batteries. That's how I got mine. I treat our IT guys at work well, and sometimes they throw equipment they don't want in my direction. Ham radio flea markets, Craigslist,etc are also good sources.

[5415551212]

FIOS offered me 200M symmetric (reliably measures 300) for $40 while Comcast was 100/20 for $75.

Those are some amazing prices, I'd switch to fiber if I could,
I pay Comcast $96.30 for 'Extreme Pro+' they advertise upload speeds up to 800mb but in reality i get less than 100 but consistently 20 on upload.
There are some local taxes here in Oregon that up the price, but I think its only $6.30.

[dsk]

From the end of this year it is definitively no more POTS in Norway.
https://www.abcnyheter.no/nyheter/norge/2022/09/06/195869404/telenor-stenger-fasttelefonnettet-fra-nyttar

[Stubbertville]

Are there any pots networks left?

[countryman]

Here, POTS customers will get service through ATAs installed in a roadside cabinet as long are their "last mile" copper cable is kept up. Deutsche Telekom still often provides internet through copper as well (ADSL / VDSL), but is going to upgrade to fibre more and more. I suppose the copper will be withdrawn where that happens?

"Real" POTS offices? Good question...

[Etienne]

I still have POTS... until at least next year.
COs are being shut down one after another and copper lines in rural areas are left in ruins.
Fibre is (slowly) coming, but unlike in former times when PTT was the only king, is being installed by temp workers who are not competent enough and do not have time to properly learn. I saw lines that had fallen on the ground after just 2 weeks. It just seems some bureaucrats made renewal plans, but are simply not aware of anything that would not be abstract.