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Finland's last analogue landline phones go silent after 150 years

euronews.com

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Re: Finland's last analogue landline phones go silent after 150 years

#41

Post by diogenescynic »

roryirvine wrote: post #34
diogenescynic wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>We've now passed the tipping point where doing telephony end-to-end entirely over IP is cheaper that keeping the baseband analog PSTN going. The main network backbone, of course, has been all-VoIP for years. Is it really or is one just more profitable because you can charge more for IP than analog? I came here to ask this because it genuinely feels like a way to remove cheaper alternatives.

Mandating that the analogue system be kept limping along in parallel would not be a cheaper alternative.

I'd rather have USPS or some quasi-government org take over some of these 'obsolete' systems than for them to just disappear altogether. There needs to be a rock bottom, bare bones option to keep prices down. We need to have more competition, not less--there are only a handful of true options for cellular or local internet. This seems to just be a way to cut off legacy infrastructure that was working fine to force people to buy into more modern (i.e. expensive) options.

Re: Finland's last analogue landline phones go silent after 150 years

#42

Post by jambalaya8 »

black_knight wrote: post #22
jambalaya8 wrote: post #7

Having enjoyed the phreak subculture from the time I was a wee child, and truly learning so much about the way the world (and network optimization) worked through telephony over decades, this just makes me sad and sick. I am not suggesting landline service is the only thing that should exist, but this seems really just depressing (from a nostalgic standpoint) and dangerous (from a 'what was copper good for, anyway?'…

Where I live we have long since shut down our copper network. I miss the low latency and not constantly talking over each others sentences.

I certainly do not miss the ability for only one person to speak at a time on a phone call. Wonder how many people remember their last phone call like that (on cellular or on cordless).

Re: Finland's last analogue landline phones go silent after 150 years

#44

Post by ProllyInfamous »

bob778 wrote: post #32
ProllyInfamous wrote: post #30

My biggest complaint as a user of an old analogue touchtone (the classic AT&T wallmount you're thinking of right now , in red) is: fiberoptic VOIP "telephone lines" don't have the wattage to ring a classic brass bellset – which is okay if you're like me and never want your phone to ring – but sometimes you need this feature. You can't even imagine how difficult it is to even source a corded telephone locally (outside…

Off topic, but how do you operate without email? Is it not essential for many government services and utilities where you are? (Here, it is technically optional for utilities but is an additional $10/month to have your electricity bill posted to you instead of emailed. The tax office requires email as does my bank though - I just checked.)

>optional for utilities but is an additional $10/month

Our local utility offers a one-time $10 credit for opting-out of paperbilling... most similar signups do/will require in-person verification – which I consider a 'perk' at this point in my life (for identity protection reasons).

>how do you operate without email?

There're a few dozen million of us non-email users; granted most are infirm in some way (whether to age or insanity).

A civil court action several years ago required me to sign attensation to "no phone / email" – which at the time was still true. As I am not an attorney, they cannot refuse my access pro se to the legal system – this case eventually required me to seek representation, so this became moot.

Re: Finland's last analogue landline phones go silent after 150 years

#45

Post by black_knight »

jambalaya8 wrote: post #42
black_knight wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where I live we have long since shut down our copper network. I miss the low latency and not constantly talking over each others sentences.

I certainly do not miss the ability for only one person to speak at a time on a phone call. Wonder how many people remember their last phone call like that (on cellular or on cordless).

What do you mean? Like either you speak or the person in the other end speak? That I don't remember! Was that a restriction on early cellular and cordless phones? Our phones had cords.

I remember we had only one line going into our house, but several phones, so if one picked up one of the other phones one were in the same call.

Re: Finland's last analogue landline phones go silent after 150 years

#46

Post by black_knight »

ProllyInfamous wrote: post #30

My biggest complaint as a user of an old analogue touchtone (the classic AT&T wallmount you're thinking of right now , in red) is: fiberoptic VOIP "telephone lines" don't have the wattage to ring a classic brass bellset – which is okay if you're like me and never want your phone to ring – but sometimes you need this feature. You can't even imagine how difficult it is to even source a corded telephone locally (outside…

I think you can get a device to put between the VoIP and the phone which makes the bell ring properly! I think it is called a ring booster.

Re: Finland's last analogue landline phones go silent after 150 years

#47

Post by ProllyInfamous »

black_knight wrote: post #46
ProllyInfamous wrote: post #30

My biggest complaint as a user of an old analogue touchtone (the classic AT&T wallmount you're thinking of right now , in red) is: fiberoptic VOIP "telephone lines" don't have the wattage to ring a classic brass bellset – which is okay if you're like me and never want your phone to ring – but sometimes you need this feature. You can't even imagine how difficult it is to even source a corded telephone locally (outside…

I think you can get a device to put between the VoIP and the phone which makes the bell ring properly! I think it is called a ring booster.

I looked this up – less than ten dollars, shipped – thanks for the recommendation, but I consider the lack of ringer a perk =D
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