| A little too late With the massive profit margins from land-line service the "legacy" phone companies failed to realize the competitive threat of VoIP and once they did, they failed to properly react to it by lowering the price. They did not want to fight that price war so they defaulted and lost it before it even started. It's a little to late to save that business and by fear-mongering they will certainly fail once again to retain it.
It is really a shame since the core of their argument is valid. Land-line systems are far more reliable than any type of new generation wireless as they were build with nuclear holocaust, cold war in mind. |
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 jeffro
join:2007-04-20
Bay City, MI | I had to call 911 back in July from my cell phone and I had no issues whatsoever with it. The call went right to the county dispatcher. I have AT&T and live in west michigan FWIW. |
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 funchordsHelloPremium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Yarmouth Port, MA
kudos:5 | reply to verolom
said by verolom:Land-line systems are far more reliable than any type of new generation wireless as they were build with nuclear holocaust, cold war in mind. My landline can't call the police in the park.
As someone who was trained to handle 9-1-1 calls (before cellular was a major 9-1-1 problem), I always asked the caller for location. In a few cases (1%-ish) had to put in a request to correct the database. In several cases, the caller isn't located where the problem was (2-3%, calling on behalf of someone else who had called them first). Lesson: landline isn't perfect.
Always -- ALWAYS expect to give your correct location. GPS or the E911 database is a nice feature, but 9-1-1 will never get away from having to attempt to verify the location of the incident with or without the location data provided by a network system.
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Robb Topolski -= funchords.com =- District of Columbia -- KJ7RL
Evil does seek to maintain power by suppressing the truth, or by misleading the innocent. --Spock and McCoy stardate 5029.5 |
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 MizzatWill post for thumbsPremium
join:2003-05-03
Atlanta, GA
kudos:1
 ·AT&T Southeast
| reply to verolom
May not be that simple, phone lines are regulated, so if you lower the cost of the base service, you have to lower it for everyone. So whats worse, losing 10% of your base, or lowering all lines 10% and still losing 6% of your base? They offer agreements that'll help save the line when they call in to disconnect, but that doesn't change the base cost, just an additional discount and they are still losing 10%. Imagine those that take the offer, they are still getting revenue, and their base remains untouched. So true logic tells us its bet to not lower prices unless you call in to disconnect.
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-M |
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patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
kudos:1 | reply to verolom
said by verolom:It's a little to late to save that business and by fear-mongering they will certainly fail once again to retain it. It is really a shame since the core of their argument is valid. Land-line systems are far more reliable than any type of new generation wireless as they were build with nuclear holocaust, cold war in mind. We can save it by requiring landline service for "public safety reasons" for each property with a certificate of occupancy, just like city water and city power. The sheriff will come to evict/arrest you if you don't subscribe. |
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 KrKHeavy Artillery For The Little GuyPremium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK
·AT&T DSL Service
| said by patcat88:We can save it by requiring landline service for "public safety reasons" for each property with a certificate of occupancy, just like city water and city power. The sheriff will come to evict/arrest you if you don't subscribe. In other words, use laws to prop up a company or industry's bottom line. "We can't earn the customers so let's pass a LAW that they HAVE to pay us."
We do a lot of that here in the USA already.
Personally, I agree that a Landline is nice to have. They are the most reliable, best backup option. If your cell battery is dead, and you need a phone, you need a phone. If your broadband or VOIP is down and you need a phone, you need a phone. If the power is off, etc etc Even makes it easier for faxing, or if you need alarm monitoring, or to make a backup MODEM call because your broadband is on the blink.
It would be nice.
The problem is, at least in my area, even having a bare minimum stripped down metered etc POTS line will still cost you $30+ a month after all the fees, taxes, surcharges etc. It's just too expensive.
Rather then a law requiring people to purchase a landline for all occupied dwellings, I think it would be better for the FCC to encourage a super low cost landline solution, IE a "Lifeline" type backup system where you could get a "restricted" landline that comes minus all the baggage and federal line charges and USF fees and blah blah. Say for $10 a month range.
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"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini
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