Any one still use a land (fixed) telephone line?

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Charlie

So THAT, my friend, is a great explanation as to how I'm able to have a phone line that only does pulse dialing for my seldom used house line.

Very well put, Tom!

Yup. Sadly it is that way for most tel-com utilities.

A few years ago Spectrum decided to switch off analog cable here. It used to be I had probably 10+ NTSC tuners driving TVs (and several more in VCR's/DVR's/DVD-recorders) for me alone, and if I so wanted I could go to goodwill get 70+ TVs for $0.49 a pop plaster a wall with them and watch every analog channel at once. When they went digital instead of going with unencrypted QAM (which though I'd have to buy new tuners I could BUY and OWN my own tuners in whatever quantity I see fit) they went with encrypted QAM...This meant that only Spectrum issued boxes will tune cable. That wouldn't be so bad if they didn't charge rent (they were free for the first year to help cook us frogs...Er..Um..Customers). So now I have 3 tuners. And each of our 6 boxes is costing ~$6 a pop a month. If I want to watch/record more than 3 shows at once (which happens occasionally) I'm screwed. And my timer recordings on vacations can get shows maybe 2-3 channels max when the same bank of VCRs&such could record material from 70+ channels before.
If I can find a better option my family will probably cut the cable...

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Yup. Sadly it is that way for most tel-com utilities.

A few years ago Spectrum decided to switch off analog cable here. It used to be I had probably 10+ NTSC tuners driving TVs (and several more in VCR's/DVR's/DVD-recorders) for me alone, and if I so wanted I could go to goodwill get 70+ TVs for $0.49 a pop plaster a wall with them and watch every analog channel at once. When they went digital instead of going with unencrypted QAM (which though I'd have to buy new tuners I could BUY and OWN my own tuners in whatever quantity I see fit) they went with encrypted QAM...This meant that only Spectrum issued boxes will tune cable. That wouldn't be so bad if they didn't charge rent (they were free for the first year to help cook us frogs...Er..Um..Customers). So now I have 3 tuners. And each of our 6 boxes is costing ~$6 a pop a month. If I want to watch/record more than 3 shows at once (which happens occasionally) I'm screwed. And my timer recordings on vacations can get shows maybe 2-3 channels max when the same bank of VCRs&such could record material from 70+ channels before.
If I can find a better option my family will probably cut the cable...

There are at least three better options, Tom. Get a Roku box and use it instead of a cable box, go with a standard TV antenna, or use a service like Hulu or YouTube TV. These will give you all your locals; YTTV and Hulu will add some cable channels. This way you can get at the very least your local TV channels, without having to lease a box from your cable company. I have Spectrum (Time Warner) cable (their Spectrum TV Choice package, which gives me all my locals plus ten user-selected cable channels) with a Roku device; my cable bill runs on average $100 a month, but that is the total charge for three services (telephone, Internet and the afore-mentioned Choice TV package).

I don't know exactly what the monthly charge is for the Choice package itself, but I am reasonably sure it is far less than what I would pay if I were renting a box. I would use a TV antenna and cut the cord entirely, but there are reception issues in my area that preclude me from taking that option, namely, I cannot get two important network affiliates OTA because of my location and because both stations transmit on VHF DTV channels that do not reach my area, a small town some 40-45 miles from the TV transmitters.

BTW, Spectrum (TW) and every other US cable operator have ended analog cable, switching to 100 percent digital (encrypted QAM) service. The only way anyone can get cable service from any US cable company these days is by renting a cable box--there are no exceptions whatsoever. This has also put an end to recording TV shows off the air with a VCR, although some services such as Hulu and Youtube TV offer what they call a "cloud DVR", which will allow subscribers to record TV shows for later viewing even if they do not have a standard DVR.

[Telecolor 3007]

Probably lack of competion... in Romania I never heared of this absurdity!, not even when we had an only land line operator.
It was true that having installed an line connected to an digital exchange was more expensive that getting conected to an analogical one, but there where the thing stoped for home user. It was cheaper to have a party line (only on analogical exchanges you could have one).
There where some subscription where you could only recive calls, not making calls (so called abonamente sociale - social subscriptions, but they only lasted a few years).

The absurdity was on pay (public) phones... calling from one with card was expensive then calling from an coin operated one.
In fact the absurdity was triple: with one coin coin phones (urban or the D.T.M.F. ones which where both urban and interurban you had the cheapest taxation, the rotary dial one with 2 slots had an bigger taxation, and the ones with cards had the highest taxation; I don't if it was so in 1993-1994, but in 1998 was).
Urban: https://etimpu.com/2011/07/11/aminti...-public-t-m-3/
this was an ex-pay phone used by C.F.R. and probably modified on the inside: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mike_t_4_sail/14906764521
Urban + interurban (D.T.M.F.) - the one from the left: https://colnect.com/en/phonecards/ph...ards-Swaziland
Interurban (it's mine): https://etimpu.com/2011/07/11/aminti...110-b-deschis/
One of the card models: https://incainromania.wordpress.com/...p-carousel-408
Oh, only from card operated ones you could call outside Romania...

[KentTeffeteller]

Originally Posted by Telecolor 3007

I'm curios, is anybody left around here that still use a land (fixed) telephone line?
I still use, but if they going to have the bad ideea of puting me on V.o.I.P., I might quit it... for me the Copper wire is the only true landline.

Big issue, AT&T is wanting to eliminate copper, as does most every other USA telecom company. Fiber replacing it. Aging, expensive to maintain infrastructure is why.

[Telecolor 3007]

The should run bankrupt for that! Cheap stakes!

[Electronic M]

Jehffs there's nothing I want to watch that is available OTA...Roku needs a cable subscription to access cable content so all it would do is eliminate a few boxes.

At some point I'm probably going to research PlayStation Vue, but I need to find time for that.

[ChrisW6ATV]

I have a real home phone line fed with copper wire from the AT&T central office, but supplied by a competitive carrier (Sonic.net) that offers superb value and service. I have rotary-dial phones connected and I still use them, it is fun to call someone on a cell phone with a rotary-dial phone. (-:

[Dude111]

Originally Posted by ChrisW6ATV
I have a real home phone line fed with copper wire from the AT&T central office, but supplied by a competitive carrier (Sonic.net) that offers superb value and service. I have rotary-dial phones connected and I still use them, it is fun to call someone on a cell phone with a rotary-dial phone. (-:

I tell ya Chris,I would love getting a reg landline again from the local phone company that still has the same switch they had on it in the 90s! (A DMS Switch)

I think DMS stuff is better then 5 ESS or this even newer 7 ESS...

Much better quality than this digital crap........

[crt89]

We do but it's through the cable modem. Rotary dial phone won't work with it.

The Uniden cordless phones also have a bluetooth link. So I can make either landline calls or cell phone calls from the same cordless handset.

Today's smartphones have horrible call quality, in my experience, the caller sounds like they're underwater or like a high pitch loudspeaker. The tiny mic and speaker is probably the cause I'd guess.

Landline call quality was so much better.

[Telecolor 3007]

How to make fun of younger generations (man, they are 16-17... they never watched old movies): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHNEzndgiFI&t=38s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71Bu8BZBeAg

[n8nagel]

My parents dropped theirs and went cellular (they don't have the option of high speed internet where they live, no cable or FiOS or anything) because the land line was so unreliable. Go figure!

In a commercial setting, I have seen a lot of people moving to cellular dialers for monitoring their fire alarm system because everyone is moving away from having any POTS lines.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by n8nagel

My parents dropped theirs and went cellular (they don't have the option of high speed internet where they live, no cable or FiOS or anything) because the land line was so unreliable. Go figure!

In a commercial setting, I have seen a lot of people moving to cellular dialers for monitoring their fire alarm system because everyone is moving away from having any POTS lines.

It's not surprising. In my area half the boxes ofr the buried POTs cables are missing their covers and or wrapped in trash bags to mitigate water incursion...15 years ago when we last had POTs sound quality and reliability were abysmal, I'm kinda scared for to know how bad it's gotten since then. Our coax based landline is not the greatest either reliability wise, and add to that the asshole field techs will chop a paying customers buried line off at the ground (forcing it to be reran) at midnight because they sensed noise from ONE bad connection inside the house....Part of me wishes I had noticed him outside and "mistaken him for a burgler" if you catch my drift.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by n8nagel

My parents dropped theirs and went cellular (they don't have the option of high speed internet where they live, no cable or FiOS or anything) because the land line was so unreliable. Go figure!

In a commercial setting, I have seen a lot of people moving to cellular dialers for monitoring their fire alarm system because everyone is moving away from having any POTS lines.

Your parents must live in a very small town far away from any major city, if they do not have high-speed Internet or cable TV. (Do they have any kind of Internet service at all?) I never in my life heard of an area that isolated from modern technology, except in rural areas tens or hunreds of miles from any major city. Do they still have a TV antenna on a tower, as people used to have in small towns years ago? If not, do they at least get one or two TV stations with rabbit ears? Again, I cannot imagine any area in the United States that far away from TV stations that the residents cannot get at least one channel, even in this age of digital TV.

At least your parents are within range of at least one cellular phone tower, which is good because without cellular, they would be completely without reliable phone service. As I said, I cannot begin to imagine how any small town could be that firmly cut off from modern technology (no high-speed Internet, no cable TV) in this day and age. As I said, they must be in a very small town, literally "in the middle of nowhere", as the expression goes.

[n8nagel]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

Your parents must live in a very small town far away from any major city, if they do not have high-speed Internet or cable TV. (Do they have any kind of Internet service at all?) I never in my life heard of an area that isolated from modern technology, except in rural areas tens or hunreds of miles from any major city. Do they still have a TV antenna on a tower, as people used to have in small towns years ago? If not, do they at least get one or two TV stations with rabbit ears? Again, I cannot imagine any area in the United States that far away from TV stations that the residents cannot get at least one channel, even in this age of digital TV.

At least your parents are within range of at least one cellular phone tower, which is good because without cellular, they would be completely without reliable phone service. As I said, I cannot begin to imagine how any small town could be that firmly cut off from modern technology (no high-speed Internet, no cable TV) in this day and age. As I said, they must be in a very small town, literally "in the middle of nowhere", as the expression goes.

You've pretty much described where they live; they are close to Youngstown but in a semi-rural area. Problem is, they bought their house before any of this was a consideration, the only thing anyone had at that time besides power, phone, and possibly gas was cable TV which was still fairly new but they didn't care that they didn't have it (there's no gas service there either; if they wanted gas appliances they'd have to get a propane tank.) They live on a semi-paved (it's technically dirt, but years of tar and chipping it have made it sort of asphalt like) road but all the houses on this road are a good 1/4 to 1/2 mile off the road. So nobody there has ever had cable TV, FiOS, etc. They are limited to using HughesNet for internet because Starlink doesn't serve the eastern US yet. Frustrating because it's a pocket of 5-6 houses that are affected like this. They're old enough that were I able to work remotely I might consider moving there so they didn't have to sell the place and move as they get older but as so much of my work involves CAD the lack of internet access makes that impossible.

Edit: now that I think about it, I should look into getting them a cell phone booster for their house. I want to say they have either AT&T or Verizon and have "OK" coverage, often when I visit I have to go outside to get a signal (I have T-Mobile). I know that cellular internet is starting to become a thing - when I got my last new phone the rep mentioned it - maybe it would be cheaper/faster than HughesNet for them, if they had a roof antenna.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by n8nagel

You've pretty much described where they live; they are close to Youngstown but in a semi-rural area. Problem is, they bought their house before any of this was a consideration, the only thing anyone had at that time besides power, phone, and possibly gas was cable TV which was still fairly new but they didn't care that they didn't have it (there's no gas service there either; if they wanted gas appliances they'd have to get a propane tank.) They live on a semi-paved (it's technically dirt, but years of tar and chipping it have made it sort of asphalt like) road but all the houses on this road are a good 1/4 to 1/2 mile off the road. So nobody there has ever had cable TV, FiOS, etc. They are limited to using HughesNet for internet because Starlink doesn't serve the eastern US yet. Frustrating because it's a pocket of 5-6 houses that are affected like this. They're old enough that were I able to work remotely I might consider moving there so they didn't have to sell the place and move as they get older but as so much of my work involves CAD the lack of internet access makes that impossible.

Edit: now that I think about it, I should look into getting them a cell phone booster for their house. I want to say they have either AT&T or Verizon and have "OK" coverage, often when I visit I have to go outside to get a signal (I have T-Mobile). I know that cellular internet is starting to become a thing - when I got my last new phone the rep mentioned it - maybe it would be cheaper/faster than HughesNet for them, if they had a roof antenna.

Cellular internet is getting pretty good. On vacation I've been able to run 2 different internet video streams at once off of it. Trick is making sure you're on whatever network has the best coverage at your home base. The family cabin had no in network sprint support, but grabbing a month of month to month Verizon got me reliable coverage there. If the neighbors have smartphones ask them what carriers they have and how good the data coverage is there.