said by dmine45:Copper is dead. Fiber is almost dead. The future is wireless. But what about those who want a "landline"?
Fixed wireless is the answer. at&t (landline) will be working with their cellular counterpart (at&t Mobility) to install it to rural areas in the next few years. It will be using the new LTE technology (aka 4G) for both voice and data.
A couple of years ago Verizon said that they don't plan on building out FiOS any more than it already is. They saw the handwriting on the wall. Wireless is the future. I don't like it, as I had hoped we would all be fed by fiber by now, but the cost to install that infrastructure would be so cost prohibitive it isn't funny.
The case in NYC due to Sandy is localized since a large amount of copper was wiped out (very old paper insulated copper lines) and to replace them with more modern copper lines would be so expensive that it's best to move people over to fiber. Same for those who have very long copper loops. It's just best to move them over to fiber IF it's even available.
Overall - wireless is the future. FiOS isn't. Sadly.
Sure for phone just add enough cell towers to fill in coverage holes and fill in rural areas. I have a verizon home connect which is a cell phone base station you plug "fixed land line phones into" . It will just need an updated LTE model in the future. However we are not just dealing with just phone. There is the issue of internet and even worse legacy TV service. There is not enough spectrum to move all this over to wireless . The main reason for fiber was legacy TV and internet. It only made sense to move phone over to fiber rather then continue to maintain a copperline network for POTS in the long run.