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AT&T applies to end obligation to service landlines in California

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Re: AT&T applies to end obligation to service landlines in California

#201

Post by callalex »

MereInterest wrote: post #68
kallistisoft wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On some Android phones pressing the power button 5 times in a row will call emergency services. I learned this the hard way when I was very drunk and fumbling with my phone - cue a call back from 911 where I had to awkwardly explain in the middle of crowded bar that the call was made accidentally. If you have a young child you may want to consider disabling this feature as it's very easy to accidentally trigger and l…

I learned this when the power button on my Pixel 3 started repeatedly firing. My phone started repeatedly rebooting, opening the camera, and calling 911, all with no user input. Because the phone was booting up and initializing the camera, the GUI would take a while to respond. It would display the “slide to cancel”, sometimes overtop the camera GUI, and wouldn’t respond when I tried to cancel it. The only thing that…

Yet another reason it should be a crime to sell a phone with a non-removable battery.

Re: AT&T applies to end obligation to service landlines in California

#202

Post by fsckboy »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #154
edmundsauto wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Att made around a 12% profit margin, which seems reasonable if a bit high. Would you consider 12% == “printing money”? I usually think of 25+% margins like in big tech that way. Not arguing just trying to understand how much money these companies are actually making.

Compared to what? Food retail is generally at 2% ...

food retail margins are 2% every time they turn over their inventory, which if they manage it properly can be much less than a month. so that 2% is annualized via a large multiplier

the margins for telecoms are considered on an annual basis.

Re: AT&T applies to end obligation to service landlines in California

#203

Post by callalex »

linsomniac wrote: post #98

Or they could just do what Century Link has done here in Colorado: Let it rot in the ground. The pedestals around all seem to have lost their covers and are just sitting exposed to the elements, an eyesore (and they were no beauty to begin with :-)

Did they “lose their covers” or did tweakers steal all the copper? That’s a big problem in the US.

Re: AT&T applies to end obligation to service landlines in California

#204

Post by the_arun »

zaptrem wrote: post #195
the_arun wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did research in Silicon Valley, there is no optic fiber. We have expensive comcast, or ATT or now Starlink.. or now 5G. I wish we had more options(high speed internet) for end users.

ATT and Sonic both have extensive fiber networks in SF.

In South Bay there are only few options

Re: AT&T applies to end obligation to service landlines in California

#205

Post by dangus »

SomeoneFromCA wrote: post #177
dangus wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally think that this reason to keep a landline also became outdated. There are so many tools and features on cell phones to identify and stop spam, and it seems like carriers are finally starting to get ahead of it. At this point the people I know in my life who still have landlines mostly get spam on them especially because they aren’t actually using the landline for much, so almost 100% of the calls going o…

Landlines are irreplacable in case of power outage. As someone who lives in developing world we often have power outages, when if you have no charge left in your cellphone, you cannot even call emergency. Landlines are independently powered and never failed even at most serious multi-day blackouts; even municipal water pumps stopped working, but phones kept functioning..

Sure, but we were talking about the US, which is so developed that it doesn’t even have 3G anymore. Americans own over one personal motor vehicle per household, they could charge their phone with their car if they really had to. Less than one hour of the California minimum wage buys you a 30W solar panel or a large spare battery to charge your phone. The risks are minimal.

And I’ve definitely had phone lines go out in the past. All it takes is one tree falling. The lines are on the same poles as the electric service. Sure, they were more reliable, but not by any measure that makes them worth keeping around (especially since the vast majority of lines sit completely inactive).

Re: AT&T applies to end obligation to service landlines in California

#206

Post by creer »

edmundsauto wrote: post #138
rconti wrote: post #85

I'm lucky that I am in Sonic's service area and get 10Gbps symmetric fiber service for $50/mo. It exposes the lie of the incumbents slow-walking new tech and bandwidth increases. They _just don't want to_ because they _don't have to_ compete with anyone, and they'd rather print cash for their shareholders. They have the capital to build these networks far faster than a small regional ISP can. Multi-gig speeds, FTTP a…

Att made around a 12% profit margin, which seems reasonable if a bit high. Would you consider 12% == “printing money”? I usually think of 25+% margins like in big tech that way. Not arguing just trying to understand how much money these companies are actually making.

It's not a "big tech" product. It's an infrastructure product. A public utility. With (if they don't mess up) life-long subscription customers. With essentially zero risk (aside from infrastructure risk: earthquakes, upgrade cycles.)

Re: AT&T applies to end obligation to service landlines in California

#207

Post by linsomniac »

callalex wrote: post #203
linsomniac wrote: post #98

Or they could just do what Century Link has done here in Colorado: Let it rot in the ground. The pedestals around all seem to have lost their covers and are just sitting exposed to the elements, an eyesore (and they were no beauty to begin with :-)

Did they “lose their covers” or did tweakers steal all the copper? That’s a big problem in the US.

The copper still seems to be there, it's just all exposed to the weather now. I'll have to keep a closer eye on it when I drive past.

Re: AT&T applies to end obligation to service landlines in California

#208

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

fsckboy wrote: post #202
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compared to what? Food retail is generally at 2% ...

food retail margins are 2% every time they turn over their inventory , which if they manage it properly can be much less than a month. so that 2% is annualized via a large multiplier the margins for telecoms are considered on an annual basis.

Sorry, I don't understand.

Are you saying that gross revenues for food retail are higher, and thus 2% of is bigger than 12% of ?

Re: AT&T applies to end obligation to service landlines in California

#209

Post by ProllyInfamous »

FireBeyond wrote: post #197
piperswe wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Castro Valley != The Castro. Castro Valley is just north of Hayward.

Ahh, I stand corrected!

Interestingly, I commuted into The Castro (once a week) and definitely let me own freak flag fly, proudly =D
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