AT&T wants to get rid of landline telephones

[WebmasterAlex]

http://arstechnica.com/telecom/news...ne-service-must-die-only-question-is-when.ars

 

[Kim&Chris]

Bad news for people like me who despise cell phones.

 

[acename]

I'd love to get rid of my landline, but the cell reception is so crappy in at my house I can't. Granted I'm in a rural area, but still, I'd like for my cell phone to actually work if they're going to take away my land line.

 

[Ephany]

I'd love to get rid of my landline, but the cell reception is so crappy in at my house I can't. Granted I'm in a rural area, but still, I'd like for my cell phone to actually work if they're going to take away my land line.

This. I live inside city limits and can't get reception at my house. I also worry about DD being able to call 911 if something happens to me. With my cell phone she'd have to know where I'd last put it down and hope that there was reception. With the landline, the phone stays where it's supposed to and I know that the phone will work if need be.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

That's interesting. They are forever sending me junk mail about signing up for a land line.

 

[Meriweather]

No cell reception where I live.

 

[dundee10]

What they're proposing is to shift to IP based telephony. Think Vonage-like. It will still be hardwired, not cell-based. But the underlying technology will move from the old switch-based to using the internet backbone.

 

[WebmasterAlex]

No cell reception where I live.

Well remember they are looking at VOIP as the other option to cells. That makes some sense, there's no need to run internet AND phone everywhere

 

[FireDancer]

I think that article is correct but it is looked at wrong by most of the general population. It will not force anyone to use cell phones or really even get rid of a land line phone. It will be a technology change and that is a change that will happen invisibly (or mostly invisibly) to the customer.

The land line isn't really what is obsolete but the PSTN backbone. I don't think that all the copper run either from the node or from the curb will be replaced. The call will leave the callers handset the same as it does now and arrive at the receivers the same way it does now. It will be what happens in the middle that changes. Even now many calls, especially those going long distances are converted into ATM packets, multiplexed over fiber, and then changed back to a PSTN call on the remote end. AT&T is already doing some IP conversion of calls with products like Flex Reach and their private MPLS network. They still arrive to land line phones as PSTN calls in the end.

Eventually the phone calls will all be sent over the Internet as the routing and QoS improves but I think the full switch over will be a very long process. There are also going to be net neutrality issues. If all packets are to be treated equal then QoS will be hard over the Internet Backbone. In the mean time I think the PSTN will be changed out with a separate IP based backbone that is solely for voice traffic. At either end it will still come into the home on the same copper 2-wire (well, technically 4 but you know what I mean) as it does now but at some point the analog voice signal will be converted to IP, MPLS, or ATM and sent over a non-PSTN backbone.

I further think that the same smart PBX systems we have in the enterprise will make it to the home. With many PBX systems you can program them to segregate call paths based on just about any criteria. We can take a modular Avaya PBX and purchase a PRI card and a VoiP card. We can force local calls out over the PRI onto what is today the PSTN network but what will eventually be the IP/MPLS/ATM based phone network while forcing long distance calls over an Internet T1, keeping them free. Heck,even back in the pre-IP days we had an Avaya Difinity Prologix PBX that segregated long distance over a routed long distance T1 making the per minute charge less than 1/10th of a cent.

This can be done in the home but it isn't cheap. Eventually there will be a cheaper system that does this and someday it might be a technology offered over the new and improved phone system since a router at the head end can do the segregation for the customer.

There are a lot of new and exciting things happening in all communication spaces, including the good old local phone companies.

 

[DVCLiz]

I think that article is correct but it is looked at wrong by most of the general population. It will not force anyone to use cell phones or really even get rid of a land line phone. It will be a technology change and that is a change that will happen invisibly (or mostly invisibly) to the customer.

The land line isn't really what is obsolete but the PSTN backbone. I don't think that all the copper run either from the node or from the curb will be replaced. The call will leave the callers handset the same as it does now and arrive at the receivers the same way it does now. It will be what happens in the middle that changes. Even now many calls, especially those going long distances are converted into ATM packets, multiplexed over fiber, and then changed back to a PSTN call on the remote end. AT&T is already doing some IP conversion of calls with products like Flex Reach and their private MPLS network. They still arrive to land line phones as PSTN calls in the end.

Eventually the phone calls will all be sent over the Internet as the routing and QoS improves but I think the full switch over will be a very long process. There are also going to be net neutrality issues. If all packets are to be treated equal then QoS will be hard over the Internet Backbone. In the mean time I think the PSTN will be changed out with a separate IP based backbone that is solely for voice traffic. At either end it will still come into the home on the same copper 2-wire (well, technically 4 but you know what I mean) as it does now but at some point the analog voice signal will be converted to IP, MPLS, or ATM and sent over a non-PSTN backbone.

I further think that the same smart PBX systems we have in the enterprise will make it to the home. With many PBX systems you can program them to segregate call paths based on just about any criteria. We can take a modular Avaya PBX and purchase a PRI card and a VoiP card. We can force local calls out over the PRI onto what is today the PSTN network but what will eventually be the IP/MPLS/ATM based phone network while forcing long distance calls over an Internet T1, keeping them free. Heck,even back in the pre-IP days we had an Avaya Difinity Prologix PBX that segregated long distance over a routed long distance T1 making the per minute charge less than 1/10th of a cent.

This can be done in the home but it isn't cheap. Eventually there will be a cheaper system that does this and someday it might be a technology offered over the new and improved phone system since a router at the head end can do the segregation for the customer.

There are a lot of new and exciting things happening in all communication spaces, including the good old local phone companies.

I was just trying to think what I know about in as much depth that I could write about and be assured hardly anyone would understand -

That's amazing - I don't understand any of it but it sounds like it makes so much sense that I'm going to try and remember it ten years from now when it's a reality.

 

[acename]

Well remember they are looking at VOIP as the other option to cells. That makes some sense, there's no need to run internet AND phone everywhere

But with a VOIP, if the power goes out you're SOL right?

When we had a bad ice storm here in January, all the power was out and the cell towers around us were out too. Luckily we had a corded phone so we could get in touch with people.

 

[Meriweather]

Well remember they are looking at VOIP as the other option to cells. That makes some sense, there's no need to run internet AND phone everywhere

Well, no cable either....dial-up connection here

 

[FireDancer]

But with a VOIP, if the power goes out you're SOL right?

When we had a bad ice storm here in January, all the power was out and the cell towers around us were out too. Luckily we had a corded phone so we could get in touch with people.

If you are using VoIP from your house than most likely that would be the case. If the VoIP packet conversion is done at the telco the analog signal will travel to them the exact same way it does now and get converted to VoIP there. Only their power situation is relevant at that point, not yours. A telco has a pretty robust power backup solution and while it can fail so can the current set up. There is always a point of fail somewhere. Sometimes it is at the house, sometimes at the pole outside the house, sometimes it is the wire a mile down the road cut by the construction crew and sometimes it is some silly goose in the Mediterranean.

The 911 problem is also solvable with a hybrid system. It is solvable with any system really, even if the solution hasn't been found yet.

 

[JerseyJanice]

Didn't read the link, but will say that I would have gotten rid of my landline already except its service is tied into a TV/internet/phone bundle.

It seems really redundant to me for us to have a landline plus a separate cell phone number for each person who lives in my house.

 

[AKL_Megs]

It's already dead in this house.

 

[honugirl]

With my medical issues, I cannot get rid of my land line because it's the only thing that will work in a power outage/emergency. I don't count on my cell phone in a disaster. If I need 9-1-1, I need it NOW, not 3 days from now...By then I won't need anything because I'll be dead.

 

[Planogirl]

We have a dead landline that is being used for our Internet connection. Other than that, we only have cell phones. I was tired of paying high fees just to get calls from collection agencies looking for people we've never heard of.

 

[pickles521]

I agree with FireDancer's assessment. The change will likely be seamless to most customers. Potentially, the one's that will benefit the most are people like Meriweather. At least in theory.... They're saying that if they can stop maintaining the phone lines, they can focus more on newer technologies, so the places that have no coverage are more likely to get coverage.

I think it's interesting to watch and wonder about a technology dying. It's the first time in my life that I've really seen (or maybe it's the first time I've noticed) an amazing invention die. And I'm seeing it with multiple things - phone lines, paper checks, mail service. It's an interesting scene. I just hope I still enjoy the view when they're gone!

 

[luvmyfam444]

Haven't hand a landline here since we moved in - 4 years ago. We have 3 cell phones now - so when I loose mine I have someone who can help me find it. I sure wish I had a base that I could put it on that I could push the page button so I could find the darn thing!

 

[bicker]

What they're proposing is to shift to IP based telephony.

This is really critical, and bears repeating. This is not about switching to cellular.

There are a lot of new and exciting things happening in all communication spaces, including the good old local phone companies.

You've posted a great summary, but I think the article is missing an important point. There is more going on here than a wish to change technology used behind the scenes. POTS simply isn't a money-maker. Even with the USF (as it currently is), it simply isn't a good use of resources.

So what happens? It gets marginalized.

We've already seen one of the Bell System companies essentially start selling off bits of its POTS footprint, with Verizon selling VT, ME and most of NH to Fairpoint, and we see them aiming to do the same thing with rural areas through the midwest, southwest and northwest, aiming to sell them off to Frontier. Verizon, at least, wants to maintain superior quality network-wide, however the way to accomplish that is to essentially divorce themselves from those portions of the country where maintaining superior quality is simply not worth it.

Maybe AT&T's plans would forestall the negative impact of that. Maybe not. My best guess is that we'll continue to see a relative degradation of quality of POTS, in rural areas especially, and in small cities surrounded by rural areas (instead of vast suburbs), simply because it isn't worth it to keep those areas up to the same level of quality as the rest of the country and (and this is the important part) our nation is not willing to do anything to make it worthwhile.