Time to replace POTS - Plane Old Telephone Systems

When they can guarantee everyone can get high speed internet (I can't at main home) it would be a good idea.
 
I read the headline and was about to totally agree with you but then I realized that you said POTS and not POTUS. :D
 
MichaelB said:
Not good news for investors that are long copper?
Click to expand...

The amount of copper used in telecom is probably small compared to that used in the electrical systems. In addition if you have DSL all that really has to be done is to change the phone instruments out, and increase the speed of the link in some cases. You can still use the copper to move the DSL signals.
It is more about the regulated exclusive territory that is POTS. (and charging for long distance etc, remnants of the past when ATT charged a lot for long distance to subsidize the local service).
 
AT&T already has plans to shut down the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) by the end of 2018.

AT&T Pushes the All-IP Telco - Unified Communications Strategies

http://www.btplc.com/Thegroup/Regul...BT-PSTNIndustryAnalysisandServiceProvider.pdf

The FCC has had it's technology advisory committee and working groups poking at this since 2011:
http://transition.fcc.gov/oet/tac/TACJune2011mtgfullpresentation.pdf

The change effectively moves all customers onto what AT&T sells as UVerse Voice service. You may not see any changes in the home, but those copper pairs your phone connects to will (and may already in UVerse deployment areas) end within a few blocks at an analog interface attached to an IP-DSLAM (Internet Protocol Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer) These gadgets and some fancy gear elsewhere replace the central switching local telephone exchange plant full of "time-division multiplexing" gear (which replaced tremendous racks of cable and stepper relays that supported rotary phones).

Without the need for the central switching, the phone company quite literally frees up some pricy real estate. (33 Thomas St and 375 Pearl St in Manhattan among thousands of others...)
 
Gosh, I hope not. I like my rotary dial phones.
 
The article was very simplistic...
The incredibly large spiderweb of wire that connects almost all of America is hugely expensive to maintain.
Would like to see a discussion of the upside/downside of this... As in...
What happens to DSL?
What part of "wired" would be eliminated for expense purposes? rural? or maybe all?
How much of the internet is represented by DSL?
Would elimination of analog free up more DSL?
What about cable competition... Comcast and Time Warner a total monopoly? More than now?
Seems like Internet Protocol would be a relatively easy changeover at a comparatively low conversion cost... ie. modem and basic phone.

Politically and morally, the question of 130 years of legal and monetary subsidies, and the public's ROI? But few would even understand that.
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2004/04/are-us-telecom-networks-public-property
 
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Gumby said:
Gosh, I hope not. I like my rotary dial phones.
Click to expand...

One of DW's cousins has one in his living room, I forgot where he said he got it. The real deal, black, desktop type, and heavy as a boat anchor. I hadn't seen one of those since the 1950's.
 
imoldernu said:
The article was very simplistic...
The incredibly large spiderweb of wire that connects almost all of America is hugely expensive to maintain.
Would like to see a discussion of the upside/downside of this... As in...
What happens to DSL?
What part of "wired" would be eliminated for expense purposes? rural? or maybe all?
How much of the internet is represented by DSL?
Would elimination of analog free up more DSL?
What about cable competition... Comcast and Time Warner a total monopoly? More than now?
Seems like Internet Protocol would be a relatively easy changeover at a comparatively low conversion cost... ie. modem and basic phone.

Politically and morally, the question of 130 years of legal and monetary subsidies, and the public's ROI? But few would even understand that.
Are U.S. Telecom Networks Public Property?
Click to expand...


Using IP would free up tremendous capacity. Remember party lines? If you picked up and heard a conversation, you hung up and waited. with IP , I think many conversations could occur at the same time on one wire pair, similar to ethernet. The outer capillary lines would mostly remain copper, but the way they are used and traffic regulated on them would change.

Dsl won't go away unless something better and cheaper supplants it.
 
bld999 said:
Using IP would free up tremendous capacity. Remember party lines? If you picked up and heard a conversation, you hung up and waited. with IP , I think many conversations could occur at the same time on one wire pair, similar to ethernet. The outer capillary lines would mostly remain copper, but the way they are used and traffic regulated on them would change.

Dsl won't go away unless something better and cheaper supplants it.
Click to expand...

Note that one can make a regular call on a line with DSL, as the frequencies used are very different. If you put a regular phone on a line with DSL you need a low pass filter to use the phone. So to turn off the POTS is as much to end the regulated telephone service and go to all deregulated telecom, i.e. skype like services over DSL for voice if you insist on land line based voice or just use cell phones.
 
Walt34 said:
One of DW's cousins has one in his living room, I forgot where he said he got it. The real deal, black, desktop type, and heavy as a boat anchor. I hadn't seen one of those since the 1950's.
Click to expand...

I have four of them in service in my house. Here are three of them. The fourth is an old wall phone from the USSR and I can't find a picture. We have one push-button phone in the office in the event we need to "press one for ..."
 

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What we need to replace is the Postal Service.
 
Gumby said:
I have four of them in service in my house. Here are three of them. The fourth is an old wall phone from the USSR and I can't find a picture. We have one push-button phone in the office in the event we need to "press one for ..."
Click to expand...

Understood. Worst case, you'll get the excitement and thrill of wiring up RotaTone modules for each of those rotary phones.

RotaTone | Rotary Telephone Pulse to Tone (DTMF) Converter – Only £25

Rotatone Pulse to Tone Converter - Oldphoneworks
 
You kids. Don't make me stop this car. (Imagine your mother's voice)
 
I agree, it's time to replace old telephone systems on planes.
 
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Interestingly. Twice recently. My DSL has worked while my landline has been as dead as a hammer. Two different AT&T IR (Installer-Repairman) gave me the same explanation: POTS service is provided by copper wire powered by negative 48VDC. POTS systems use positive ground. POTS requires that both the negative and positive sides of the cable pair be intact. On the other hand, DSL uses only the positive side of the cable pair. So my DSL service was not affected. Also, interestingly, I didn't miss the land line as long as the DSL was working. We have four cellphone in my household.

Both IR techs said that another AT&T group was working in the area preparing the cable for Uverse and had apparently cut the wrong cable pairs.
 
Fermion said:
What we need to replace is the Postal Service.
Click to expand...

UPS, DHL, et al have already done that; the postal service can run 1B in the hole each year, the others can't, so usps is still walking dead.
 
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