Comments on: AT&T to FCC: Let My Landlines Go!

By: A

Sat, 30 Oct 2010 23:25:10 +0000

At&t will never relinquish all of their copper facilities. As a digital tech with At&t I see how many t1 lines are feeding through this outdated network to all of their precious cell sites. The company will never just quit using these facilities. The only reason they want to get rid of pots is so they can lay off service techs who work on it. There will be no network upgrade they just want to replace all the service techs with premise techs who make less and work on the VOIP technology. Corporate greed at its finest. Too bad the company will still need us digital techs to install and maintain their t1 services to cell sites because im sure they want to get rid of us also.

By: Tracking the Landline’s Demise

Tracking the Landline’s Demise — Thu, 13 May 2010 16:12:11 +0000

[...] report’s results (found here in a PDF) are generally in line with those contained in AT&T’s filing to the Federal Communications Commission last year, in which the carrier req.... Additional findings from the CDC study that point to the inevitable end of the landline [...]

By: William Hassig

William Hassig — Mon, 10 May 2010 02:01:40 +0000

Leave my landline alone! I've had that number since 1973 and I want it until I die (I'm 64). I'm retired from what is now AT&T and I dont see where the big cost is in running the switched pots network. All the equipment and cables and transmission facilities are in place and have earned their keep many times over during the past decades. The switched pots system is simple compared to the rest of the communications network.

By: Adair

Adair — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 13:10:32 +0000

I actually keep a POTS line in case of emergency. I work in the business telecom world and also in emergency communications. I see what really works and what doesn’t on a daily basis. I love my cell phone and VoIP but when then sh*t hits the fan I want a POTS line.
The only issue with POTS now days is with so many RT’s (remote terminals) pushing DSL closer to subscribers, if a city wide power outage hit your town it’s likely your POTS service would eventually quit. Unlike the old days when everything ran out of the CO which was backed up my generator…..
Oh well…..

By: kimijye

kimijye — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 15:21:08 +0000

It’s worthwhile noting that low-income families, seniors and people with disabilities receive protection of their essential utility services, including POTS (plain old telephone service), under fcc regulations – see http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/lllu.html. But VOIP falls under the bailiwick of broadband internet connectivity, which is unregulated by the government, so those protections would not be in place for these vulnerable individuals and families should they lose their POTS.

By: tm

tm — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 00:42:52 +0000

What a load. So that explains why AT&T will not increase its DSL coverage areas. They no longer want to serve anyone but people in cities..

If AT&T would provide DSL to all of its wireline customers that might work.

If AT&T does not want to serve wireline why did they buy the wireline part of bellsouth? They should be made to sell it to someone that wants to provide wireline phones and DSL to all the customers.

Such a plan to phase out wireline will not work but wireless does can not replace wireline unless wireless rules were changed to require carriers to accept extentions so you can have several phones on 1 line at no extra cost and so that local dialup modems in satellite receivers and tivos and fire alarms could also work on those lines. You would also have to have a requirement that the cell service serve ALL areas which it does not now do. Many rual areas are not served by cell service.

As far as AT&T broadband wireless AT&T rules do not allow you to use this on a home computer 24hrs a day it is only for a laptop. Thos rules would also have to change allowing you to use it on a home computer with no monthly bandwidth caps just like DSL.

By: AT&T Loses The Landline With New Triple Play – GigaOM

AT&T Loses The Landline With New Triple Play – GigaOM — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 19:54:59 +0000

[...] IP soon enough), the willingness of a major service provider to accept that the landline is dying (and maybe hasten its death) is a hopeful sign. AT&T is doing this to help differentiate itself from its cable competitors, [...]

By: sam

sam — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:48:52 +0000

I think you have your statistics backwards. It's not that only one fifth of Americans rely on land lines. Rather only one fifth of households have given up their land lines. That leaves 80% who still rely on them.

By: at&t landline employee

at&t landline employee — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 05:51:43 +0000

There are indeed some smart folks in the audience with some very insightful opinions for and against the at&t push to ditch their landline obligations as a public utility and steward of the United States communications infrustructure. It’s refreshing to see angry and vigilant Americans thinking, and mobilizing against corporate greed and Wall Street narcissism. It’s equally sad, as a telecom craftsman, to see the decay of my trade.
Fact : at&t made 129 billion dollars last year(2008-2009) during the worst economic depression since 1936. This was the highest earning year in the history of at&t. ( Does this sound like a company in economic peril ?)
At&t is no longer a friendly telephone provider that you can rely on like the power company, water company, or gas man. At&t is steadily becoming a multi-trillion dollar cash cow, gin mill, revenue-driven, retail money machine. Retail(revenue) is the key word here…the dozen or so folks running this massive mastodon money machine know nothing, or give a shit about, John Doe American in Fartlick, Arkansas, who lives 6 miles outside of city limits and needs telecom service. The Ivy-League frat kids who run the nations telecom infrustructure nowadays are bottom-line, revenue driven. Do you actually think they give a shit about a single POTS line customer ? They (our corporate hacks) are a new generation of buyers and sellers…They don’t give a fuck if they are selling tennis raquets, chewing gum, car parts, stereo equipment, or broadband… ” We need to increase profits “…” We made 129 billion last year… We need to make 150 billion next year ! “… It seems that the landline platform is a thorn in the side of revenue growth and ass-over-teapot ridiculous annual earnings we’ve enjoyed here at at&t. The vibe I get is that at&t customers are a nuisance, and if we could fire our customers and still make a profit, we sure as hell would! The rhetoric is right in front of your faces, but laid out in a glib and silver-tongued fashion…
For you fancy, savvy digital folks out there, there are a wide range of digital and analog solutions available, from many different vendors, and with many different broadband packages. And for the folks who only want a simple POTS line and nothing else, God bless you!
The fact of the matter is this : If at&t is allowed to ditch their infrastructure obligations and grandstand cutting-edge broadband-super-fancy superiority, wave of the future, wireless fanciness( with no guarantee of service or quality, especially to folks in areas that don’t matter), what will become of US telecom? I’ll be out of a job for damn sure, as well as 250-500,000 fellow craftsman, and I’m sure this will pave the way for Verizon and others, if they get a mad-money tick in their ass as well.
I’m confident that the folks at the FCC have the maturity and wisdom to see this financially motivated, revenue driven, self-serving ruse for what it is…corporate greed, lack of civil responsibility and pure negligence at it’s finest…If these Texas toads that run this company wanted to be socially irresponsible with reckless abandon, and unchecked, they should have gotten jobs with R.J Reynolds or the California State Senate. It’s not enough that the leptons that run this cash machine could care less about the average American demographic,…it’s personally offensive to me that they don’t know what this business is about, what we do, and why we do it…they sit up in ivory towers and push doomsday buttons that lay regions to waste and destroy livelihoods and the concept of pride in America… When was the last time you had a gas station attendant in a paper hat come up to your window and ask to check your oil ? Technology and greed are replacing American jobs and funneling more money upwards to the wealthy few…then the majority can collect unemployment ! Please use your voice to tell the FCC that the notion of at&t dumping copper is retarded and fucking absurd. Most of the network now has simbiance with copper anyways…they only want deregulation so they don’t have to be bullied by customers anymore…they want the upper hand over the customer…” Don’t give it to them!” this stupid foolishness could cause a serious catclysm in the economy far beyond the fall of real estate jobs and car builders…

By: VoIP Gaining Ground, So Where Will Legacy Voice Make Its Last Stand? – GigaOM

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:07:51 +0000

[...] what market demographic represents the last stand for legacy circuit switched voice. Will it be consumer landlines or will it be mobile voice over 3G [...]