Kentucky bill may help hang up landline phone service

[KG4KBU]

Off topic but what do you all think about this bill ?

Landline telephone service has become so old-fashioned in today’s wireless world that telecom giant AT&T has called it a relic “of a bygone era.”

A bill pending before the Kentucky General Assembly could hasten the service’s decline.

Kentucky bill may help hang up landline phone service | The Courier-Journal | courier-journal.com

 

[Teehar]

Living in a very rural area I can tell you that landline is a must here.No cable very spotty cell service some areas have no cell phone reception at all.Until and unless they modernize all these mtn.areas they need to re-consider making bills to kill off landline service.There are still many folks that can only get dial-up internet.

 

[TNGTony]

Terrible bill probably introduced by ATT's lobbyists. Change the language to say that once the cell company has 100% cell coverage in the areas they offer landline, THEN they can stop land line service as long as all cell phones have GPS for 911 and thy submit to the PUCO for basic services to ensure they don't decide to shed unprofitable customers. We all pay a fee on our phone bills to ensure rural areas get phone service (and electric as well). There is a reason for that.

 

[mike123abc]

Terrible bill probably introduced by ATT's lobbyists. Change the language to say that once the cell company has 100% cell coverage in the areas they offer landline, THEN they can stop land line service as long as all cell phones have GPS for 911 and thy submit to the PUCO for basic services to ensure they don't decide to shed unprofitable customers. We all pay a fee on our phone bills to ensure rural areas get phone service (and electric as well). There is a reason for that.

This is probably a response to the FCC decision last year to reduce and eventually eliminate the rural phone service support fees. They are shifting them over to broadband. So, these rural lines will not get the support to make them profitable any more. AT&T was happy to provide service anywhere when they got universal service funds to pay for them. The USF was nice and profitable. Studies have shown for the amount that has been spent over the years in the USF they could have burried fiber to every household in the US, instead it was just a cash cow for the phone companies. Now that the cow is dying they want out.

AT&T is rumored to be looking into selling off the land lines like VZ did over the last few years (the non uverse areas), another sure sign the cash is going away.

 

[truckracer]

Here is my problem with that. At&t 's network is already oversold. there are far too many users vs the backbone's capability. anytime there is a disaster such as a storm and everyone is trying to make calls from a wireless cell phone you will hear "all circuits are busy"...etc.

i know this can also happen on landline phones but is much less likely.

at&t is so out of control with their backlashing against the loyal customers that put them where they are.

i just dropped att because of the ridiculous amount of throttling they did to my iphone.

i do not like att's call quality via cellular networks either. around here att consistently drops calls even when you have 100% signal bars, your voice echos back as you speak. i have sprint and sprints data makes att 3G look like dialup. no echo on sprint and so far no dropped calls.

 

[Tampa8]

AT&T laid off many linemen and phone service personnel in Ct. It does appear they are working on a strategy to get out of that business.
The biggest problem is what will people with alarms that are monitored do? Yes, they now have systems that will work like VOIP does over the internet, but that is nowhere as reliable as regular phone service is. Regular landline phone service rarely goes out, mine has not in Ct. for years, honestly not once, not during the hurricane, or the major snows last year. Cell towers however do stop when power is off after awhile, and they become overwhelmed during emergencies.
I rely on my smartphone for just about everything, but when power is out for awhile or my cell phone battery is dieing the landline is always there.

As for their cell service, that must depend on your area. It does rings around Verizon in Eastern Ct, Sprint and Tmobile are useless there. My inlaws switched to Verizon in Florida, works great there, but they travel in a motorhome and are constantly reminded of where they could make a call with AT&T and now have trouble doing so.

 

[radio]

anytime there is a disaster such as a storm and everyone is trying to make calls from a wireless cell phone you will hear "all circuits are busy"...etc. i know this can also happen on landline phones but is much less likely.
.

A wise observation! And PLEASE don't even utter the words, "magic jack!" as your main phone service. I was asked by someone recently, "should I dump my landline for magicjack?" I said, "how often is your power out? They never made the connection til it was brought up.

 

[mike123abc]

Landlines are dying off. Few really care about/think about disasters. The younger you are the more likely you are cell phone only, why pay for a land line you never use? Especially since land lines tend to be expensive with all the taxes and fees.

I went VOIP at the house and just kept my landline number. Went from $60/month to $8. If the landline was under $20 I probably would have kept it, but it just went up in price every year, just like clockwork. At my businesses I have most of them converted to cable triple play.

 

[eurosport]

A landline here is the ONLY way to get decent DSL internet. Too far out for cable, & our telephone company (Windstream) has been doing more work here lately, laying new cables & putting in more phone boxes than I've ever seen.

 

[mperdue]

Land line phones are going to go away so you better get used to the idea. I dropped my land line in favor of a cell phone a couple of years ago. I made sure that my cell phone had a GPS in it so that my location information is provided to E911 operators even if I am unable to speak; if I can speak I will start by saying where I am and what I need. I also called E911 when I first got the phone to verify that GPS data was being sent to them and to ensure that their database associated my cell phone with my address. Some areas have a separate phone number to call to update this information so check with your local law enforcement before calling. I hope to never have to make use of E911 service but I feel comfortable that they will be able to find me if I do.

 

[truckracer]

this kind of reminds me of a convo i was engaged in at work. one of my co workers were trying to decide whether his whole house should be wireless N or wired ethernet. i told him wired ethernet is faster and more reliable.

nothing is more reliable than a direct copper connection period.

 

[mike123abc]

nothing is more reliable than a direct copper connection period.

A friend of mine gave up phone service since every time we had heavy rain their land line would go out. AT&T was never able to fix the problem after years of complaints. They would probably have to bury a new line down the highway and in a rural area it was probably easier to let the customer go than to really fix the problem

 

[SamCdbs]

This is a bad bill.

The problem is that the baby Bells don't want to be phone companies anymore. Verizon (nee Bell Atlantic, nee C&P) sold out of my state two years ago and all I can say is GREAT. They were replaced (the workers stayed the same, of course) by a company (Frontier) that wants to be in the POTS business.

If AT&T, Cincinnati Bell, and whoever the thrid company is in this bill (Windstream maybe??) don't want to be in the POTS business, then they should sell the whole state to someone that is.

 

[stanleyjohn]

When the day comes! and it will when there are cell towers located to cover all areas of North America the land line will go the way of the dinosaur.

 

[truckracer]

one thing i cannot stand about cellphones is the overcompressed sound quality and echo in the ear speaker. i hate the echo from poor network quality.

 

[TNGTony]

I've found when I was selling cell phones that most of the echo was purely mechanical People would have the volume on their phones all the way up and not hold the phone tight on their ear. The sound from the speaker would bounce off their heads and onto the mic on the handset and an echo is born!

 

[stanleyjohn]

My wife and i like to use speaker phone when we talk on the cell!that causes the echo problem.Its just like when you call a radio station and they tell you to turn down your radio.

 

[truckracer]

i had an iphone 3gs, 4, 4s on aye tee and tee and they all did it. even with the earphones. that crap was so annoying i would end the call.

 

[TNGTony]

Looks like this is a national effort now. Rather than go through Congress, companies are going state to state to get their way. It is easier to pass IDIOTIC legislation through state governments than it is through Congress.
Groups oppose Ohio bill to drop landline services - FOX19.com-Cincinnati News, Weather & Sports

 

[Stargazer]

This could be good or bad. If a local company decided not to provide service anymore it might encourage another company to take over which might do a worse job or maybe a better job and offer more services such as broadband since it would be more viable for them to do so. A lot more people would probably go to cell phones at that point and may have to buy boosters to get the signal in.