AT&T to FCC: Drop The Landline Requirement

[jaybus]

I think AT&T is jumping the gun, but some of their points need to be addressed anyway. 911 services need to be fixed for VOIP and cell service anyway, regardless of what happens with analog lines. Regulation and taxing of communications should be at the national level. All communication technologies cross state boundaries. State and local regulations only serve to facilitate local mini-monopolies and suck more taxes out of our pockets for no particular purpose.

 

[Niva]

[citation][nom]jabliese[/nom]Gee, maybe investing more money in ISDN would have been worth it? QQ more. Dear FCC, make a rule allowing phone companies to stop offering analog if they convert them to ISDN, mwuhahaha. AT&T better be careful, though. The obvious solution here is for the FCC to say, "OK, but you have to offer straight DSL at the same price as your old analog plans, not the bundled." And if analog lines are such a burden, why does AT&T force you to get landline service with your DSL, hmmm?Making less money losing money. Got any numbers backing up the assertion that AT&T loses money on landlines? For example, comparing revenue to maintenance? And, it seems to me AT&T should be reporting analog land line revenue with DSL anyway, they use the same copper.[/citation]

AT&T doesn't force you to have a landline. I'm sure this is an issue of maintenance vs. profit. You have to consider that the bulk of their maintenance costs and trouble areas is NOT around big cities but out in the country where population is not so dense.

The copper wire is good to have though. I can attest to a personal experience as someone else mentioned above during a hurricane when even though cell towers remained up, they were impossible to use since everyone was attempting to use their cell phones at ones.

In order to operate these companies have to make money. The FCC does force them to provide services in certain areas, it's not a free market. If it was a free market then AT&T and other such companies would've moved out of those areas a long time ago.

PS. In order to get DSL you have to be close to a station. Removing the landline requirement does not spell doom for DSL in the big cities at all. DSL is/was not an option in many of the rural areas.

 

[ravewulf]

AT&T, you're not allowed to talk on this issue when most of the people you want to phase out of landlines can't get decent (or any) service on your mobile network

 

[vangvace]

[citation][nom]npaladin2000[/nom]I'm not volunteering to subsidize landlines just so that you can keep your DSL instead of joining the rest of us in the 21st century. You want it, you pay $90 a month for it. That's what it's going to cost soon enough, since they'll have to charge more just to break even now.Can you still afford it? Thought not.[/citation]

My POTS analog line costs me $15 a month.

Also ATT has a ton of analog lines contracted out to the gov't. The amount of money that it would cost to upgrade all of the equipment to digital would be stimulus bill high. It'll be another 40-60 years or a buttload of money before analog phone service can go away imo.

 

[Guest]

this is about 1 thing PROFIT. at$t wants everyone to go wireless so they can get rid of the 200,000 plus employees who maintain the landline system. its NOT about providing customers better service or choices, its about more money. the numbers at$t presents are a joke, they are actively trying to get customers to get rid of their landline. they just dont want to invest in the equiptment to bring customers in rural areas high speed internet.

 

[dannyjr89]

I don't know but DSL/CABLE service still hasn't reached my area which is down right absurd. Its the 21st century.... its time those greedy bastards start paying attention to the rural population. Id gladly give up my landline for a broadband connection/internet phone.

28.8kb/s dialup 10 years and counting.

 

[Guest]

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