They are turning off landlines in 2025!

[Berwhale]

In our house we have currently reliable (fibre to the cabinet, copper from there to the house) internet.

We have a mobile phone each, each with a different providers.

We actually only keep a landline phone connected because some elderly relatives call us on it, and that had dropped from 3 to 2 now my mother is unable to call. The chances of the internet and both mobiles failing at the same time is slim to non existent outside a societal collapse. And then we'll have other worries.

A couple of years ago, we had quite a long power outage in fairly rural Sussex. The outage was round 8 hours in total, but I was able to get us on-line periodically. I ran the ONT, switch and AP for 30 minutes at a time, this let everyone update their phones and tablets, download any media they wanted and catch up with friends and relatives. Everything was turned off for an hour in between.

I bought a 1200W petrol generator after this (in anticipation energy scarcity and societal collapse!), but I've not had reason to use it, yet.

 

[antcollinet]

but I've not had reason to use it, yet.

That damn societal collapse - never comes along when you are ready for it

 

[restorer-john]

In our house we have currently reliable (fibre to the cabinet, copper from there to the house) internet.

We have a mobile phone each, each with a different providers.

We actually only keep a landline phone connected because some elderly relatives call us on it, and that had dropped from 3 to 2 now my mother is unable to call. The chances of the internet and both mobiles failing at the same time is slim to non existent outside a societal collapse. And then we'll have other worries.

The internet and mobiles do fall at the same time, albeit delayed by their backup batteries by a day or so.

Our mobile is mainly derived from three ridge/hill mounted 3/4/5g multi carrier setups around our area- they get hit with electrical storms (always on a friday night it seems) so can be out for the weekend after shutting down mid Saturday. And our internet is fixed wireless bounced off the border range base stations about 16km away, 2400ft up. Again, they are supplied by above ground power and the area is prone to getting wild storms. So either lighting strikes on the towers (they are huge with microwave links down the east coast and up north) kill the network infrastructure or the power is lost- or both.

We've had them go down for several days when we had serious power interruptions from lines downed en-mass.

Our last lightning strike related outage was around 4-5 days, crossed over a few public holidays and a weekend, plus they needed new parts and particularly, they needed to line up the 'climbers'. They are the dudes who climb the actual towers with ropes and chit.

The thing about fixed copper telephony was it would work without power at your own home. That is something I miss.

 

[Digby]

My point is that landlines just work - someone who knows better than I do, said 99.999% of the time. This is clearly not the case for either mobile phones or internet connections. If the landline is being completely done away with (or most don't have one) and mobiles/VOIP technology through the internet is used, then shouldn't the telecom companies (mobile and internet providers) be required to provide uptime much higher than they currently do and be working towards something like 99.9% uptime, across the country?

In brief, the internet and mobile phones are no longer toys, but serious means of communication. A system where you have mobile phone providers go down for days at a time, without offering some kind of compensation or being incentivised by government to provide reliable service, and the only response is "oh well, sorry about that", doesn't seem to be satisfactory in 2023. The same goes for the internet.

There are better and worse mobile providers and better and worse internet providers, but I don't think any are required to provide a certain amount of uptime/availability in the way that electricity, water and landlines are required to.

Should this be made a requirement, what kind of reliability can reasonably be expected, if pressure was put on these companies (government legislation?).

 

[Mnyb]

No one i know have landline , all use mobile phones since the last 10 years ? my old parents have an IP phone ?

 

[Digby]

The thing about fixed copper telephony was it would work without power at your own home. That is something I miss.

It is so reliable that whenever someone tried to use the phone in a horror movie and it had no dial tone, you (and they) knew something bad was about to go down!

 

[Digby]

I bought a 1200W petrol generator after this (in anticipation energy scarcity and societal collapse!), but I've not had reason to use it, yet.

and the shotgun to fend off looters too?

 

[mhardy6647]

No cell coverage in my neck of the woods* -- only options are DSP (which was/is slow, as we're 3 miles from the switch**) or cable (Xfinity). Well, I guess there're various satellite options (Starlink, maybe? and old-school satellite -- although the geosynchronous satellites are low on the horizon up here AFAIK).



To their credit, Vermont (right across the river) has been striving to improve high-speed internet access for that state's small and rather diffuse population, against substantial geographic constraints. New Hampshire, though, is pretty much in Live Free or Die (Sucka) mode when it comes to improving high-speed internet access.
__________________
* There are a few spots, mostly outside the house, that can be used to send and receive texts if one is very careful in location and the phone is kept very still.
** That's another story entirely! When we moved here full time (2013), that was the only option for internet access, and a tedious one it was.

 

[RayDunzl]

I don't remember any of my cell phones ever failing to connect, internet or call, other than an occasional out-of-tange when travelling.

I make the phone a wi-fi hotspot when my ISP goes down.

Can't say it wasn't working when I didn't try to use it, though.

I installed and tested landline Central offices for years... The pass/fail for call attempts at that time was you could fail two in ten thousand call attempts, 99.98% completion rate. It was usually 100%.

That was before cell phones became ubiquitous.

When we knocked down a system for some upgrade or maintenance, we'd sometimes have people knocking on the door at 3am in the small town sites.

Much of the work was replacing mechanical with digital machines, or Telephone Switch Simulators as one fellow in Vermont called it.

He was miffed because he'd have to put a ringer on the phone in his switchroom, because he wouldn't be able to hear a call for him clickiing through the relays of the old machine.

 

[Berwhale]

and the shotgun to fend off looters too?

They'll have to get past the guard dogs first...

 

[Digby]

They'll have to get past the guard dogs first...

Good luck to them, they're obvious feasting on the bones of the last chap to chance his arm - literally, in this case.

 

[Digby]

No cell coverage in my neck of the woods* -- only options are DSP (which was/is slow, as we're 3 miles from the switch**) or cable (Xfinity). Well, I guess there're various satellite options (Starlink, maybe? and old-school satellite -- although the geosynchronous satellites are low on the horizon up here AFAIK).

Beautiful scenery, save for some of the foliage, that could be any number of places in England, little wonder they called it New Hampshire.

 

[antcollinet]

They'll have to get past the guard dogs first...

View attachment 309898

Has that thing got a tusk?!!

 

[Berwhale]

Has that thing got a tusk?!!

They're Sabre Tooth Poodles

 

[antcollinet]

Only one - so perhaps a narpoodle.

 

[Andysu]

bad idea and i protest to having the landline disconnected for sake mobile phones landline particular for emergency calls or for those who don't care for mobile phones

 

[Berwhale]

Only one - so perhaps a narpoodle.

It was a baby tooth

 

[Trismagistus]

Two years ago, my estate was connected to fibre via Cityfibre. The suggested provider was Vodafone,so I took a contract with them. Two days later my wife told me that the landline was dead, fortunately there is an RJ11 port on the back of the router. After investigating options I bought an extension cable from eBay, routed it through the loft and connected the phones. It all works well with the same phone number.
However not all ISP's support VOIP so you may need a separate contract for your landline.
This has been my experience, I hope yours goes as well if not better.

 

[Digby]

Two years ago, my estate was connected to fibre via Cityfibre. The suggested provider was Vodafone,so I took a contract with them. Two days later my wife told me that the landline was dead, fortunately there is an RJ11 port on the back of the router. After investigating options I bought an extension cable from eBay, routed it through the loft and connected the phones. It all works well with the same phone number.
However not all ISP's support VOIP so you may need a separate contract for your landline.
This has been my experience, I hope yours goes as well if not better.

Thanks for coming out of the woodwork to make this your first post

 

[Doodski]

I've been using VOIP.ms for maybe 20 years I'm guessing. It is economical, has great global service and is stable/reliable.