AT&T
is moving aggressively to stop offering classic wired telephone service.
In December 2024, the company announced that it was “actively working to exit
its legacy copper network operations across the large majority of its wireline
footprint by the end of 2029.” Instead of traditional copper landlines,
customers will have to depend on cellular telephone service, or rely on such
telecommunications technologies as voice over internet protocol, which converts
the sound of voices into digital data.
Depending on where they live,
erratic service can be an issue that cellular telephone users confront on a
daily basis, and is one reason that there are consumers who opt to pay both
monthly cell phone and landline bills.
According to a resident of
Anaheim, California: “The cell signal in my area is spotty. I often spent an
hour-plus on hold with calls to government agencies and insurance companies. I
have to use my landline on those calls because they get dropped on my cell.”
People living in rural areas
regularly confront inadequate and unreliable cellular reception. Dense forests,
high winds, and mountainous terrain all pose telecommunications challenges.
Unreliable signals present particular risks when a working phone is required to
deal with emergencies or dial 911.
“The cell signal in my area is spotty. I often spent an hour-plus on hold with calls to government agencies and insurance companies. I have to use my landline on those calls because they get dropped on my cell.”
ReplyDeleteI live rurally. There are times in the summer, when the leaves of the forrest between me and the closest cell tower, 10 miles as the crow flies, so shunts them electrons, that my cellulite phoney device will not initiate nor receive a 'phone' call. It also, may not even be able to receive texts.
The texting part is particularly frustrating, as banking online now requires secondary authentication, and my institution will not send an email. I had POTS, Plain Old Telephone Service, until it got to almost $100.00 a month without long distance. I ditched, and for a while struggled with the 4G device.
Then I capitulated to the fact that a 911 call was impossible on the 4G device half the year, so I signed up for VOIP.
From the beginning, it was not tolerant of any call where you have to be on hold. 10 minutes max and all of a sudden, call goes dead. I guess the bright side is that I no longer have to rue the time lost to waiting on hold, nor suffer the total failure of AI as a 'first tier customer service representative'.
The margins are being marginalised. We are not enough of the market for it to give a whit. The future is the megapolis. Endless sprawl until we burn like Mars...