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44 Comments
- chockster, on 11/06/2009, -2/+23I'm confused. A suggestion from the big cable companies that makes sense? My world has been turned upside down.
- TheUngod, on 11/06/2009, -1/+19Big cable is recommending something that would give more money to big cable? I'm so surprised!!!
- UnFriendlyFire, on 11/06/2009, -3/+21How about if we stop collecting the phone tax and stop federal subsidies? Oh, sorry that would be too libertarian.
- agentsrecord, on 11/06/2009, -0/+9Big cable plans on 'helping' the government by making it tougher for them to get subsidy money. By doing so, they stand to turn a greater profit when their services are required.
Why do I get the feeling this sounds like a power play by the bigger companies to monopolize cable services? - Langford, on 11/06/2009, -0/+9It makes sense, AND it sends money and customers to them. Not exactly selflessness on their part, just a coincidence.
- Devrdander, on 11/06/2009, -0/+6Except the phone carriers are regulated tightly, required to resell service to other businesses at wholesale, and offer competition to the cable companies. If the cable companies were regulated the same way, and brought to a level playing ground, I'd say this makes sense. They right now get an unfair advantage in the data/telecom world since they aren't regulated the same as a LEC...
- zaren, on 11/06/2009, -0/+6How about:
Because there are still millions of rural customers that can't get (or don't want / need) cable service, tv or otherwise? Big Cable is happy to say that over 50% of Americans *can* have access to cable, but that still leaves the remaining under 50% that can't, as well as all the customers that don't see a need for it, since their POTS works just fine. (NOt that even know it's referred to as POTS - it's just "the phone" to them.) - wolfing, on 11/06/2009, -1/+7as much as I hate 'big cable', I think they're right even if it's for their greedy goals. Those subsidies are from another era, they don't make sense now.
- kaelyiesta, on 11/06/2009, -0/+5Because it is. Businesses have ALWAYS sought out government to help them keep out competition in order to ***** over the rest of us.
- slvrbullet87, on 11/06/2009, -0/+5Please do this... i want another reason to hate comcast
- Jonjonr6, on 11/06/2009, -0/+5And when you eventually get 4g on your phone, it'll serve as your internet modem too. I can't wait (till it's affordable)
- nofx1510, on 11/06/2009, -0/+4First, your cable company is retarded for taking down service for a whole day per month and should not be providing anything to your town ever again.
Second E-911 with voip is extremely easy to registrar. All you need to do is provide your username to your voip trunk and your address and information for where the phone currently is. If the system was to go down we have other means of communication such as cell phones if needs be. VoIP has show to be just a reliable in standing up to nature as the plain old telephone system. If a squirrel decided to nest in a 66 block and cause a short across the analog terminals your phone would stop working, a squirrel would have to do a lot worse to complete bring down a VoIP system which also can now be monitor unlike a lot of the old analog systems which are still laying around. - Yez70, on 11/06/2009, -0/+4For one thing - it should not entirely go to the cable companies, but it is a worthy idea.
The wisest thing to do would be to eliminate POTS service and switch the entire country over to VOIP type services. This would more than double the basic bandwith available to telco customers. It's far cheaper to manage VOIP systems than it is to manage the POTS system, plus it incentivizes a way to get broadband for all - not just those groups who live close to one another.
They should also set a standard for BATTERY OPERATED VOIP modems that can last 24 hours or more without power. - roddack, on 11/06/2009, -0/+4Ah nothing like the phone going out with the cable modem..........
- thejynxed, on 11/06/2009, -1/+5There's a reason those subsidies existed. Namely, that until they were provided (and after an act of Congress), phone companies refused to provide service in rural areas, period.
- HonoredMule, on 11/06/2009, -1/+4The thing is, telco's actually have to follow rules and provide equitable, reliable, fair, and neutral/universal service. Until internet and VOIP providers are held to the same high standards (and net neutrality would only be a step in that direction), I see no reason why they should expect the same treatment.
- Princeamor, on 11/06/2009, -1/+4Not even many IP phone services are going to last... soon all cell phones will be unlimited service for $50 a month...
- nofx1510, on 11/07/2009, -0/+3If your not paying for service then there will be no dial tone. The service is cut off at the TN and without any electrical signal going to it there will be no dial tone.
- nofx1510, on 11/06/2009, -0/+3I'm defiantly not saying a cell phone is the cure to all problems, I work in the telecom industry and for awhile I did site surveys for cell reception. What I am try to get at is that removing the POTS will not be the end of the world. If you move over to a VoIP provider and cancel your POTS service they are going to disconnect it so having it in the house will not do anything when the VoIP service goes down for whatever reason.
- jiggawatt, on 11/06/2009, -1/+4On the one hand it's making a valid point for wasteful subsidies, yet its intention is to transfer those subsidies to themselves, rather than just freeing up that tax payer money.
- thejynxed, on 11/06/2009, -0/+3As you say roddack...
Also, what happens if they do this, and how will it fit in with current E-911 setups?
How will they provide any phone service at all when an entire network segment is down because a squirrel decided to make a nest somewhere inappropriate?
How are customers supposed to call anyone when the servers at the cableco are down for maintenance? (This happens at least once per month. The entire cable service is off in our town for an entire day. When dealing with phone service, this is unacceptable and against the regulations setup in my particular state, because it violates E-911 laws, which is why in the rural areas of my state, anyone providing FiOS type services, satellite, or IP-based telephony is not allowed to remove the POTS cables from any residence).
These are big questions to deal with when you want to swap to a completely IP-based telephony system in a rural area. - footbag01, on 11/06/2009, -0/+2Unless the IP phone services are unlimited service for $2.95 a month. Totally depends on what they charge.
- nxusername, on 11/06/2009, -0/+2Can someone explain this in plain engrish? Use as much comedy as possible. Thanks.
- nofx1510, on 11/06/2009, -1/+3IP phone systems will be around for a long time, some people still want a land line phone and if you think wires will disappear you are crazy. Wireless services in all situations are miserable compared to wired services in speed and reliability and it will always be that way. We have fiber at 40Gb/s right now, show me a wireless connection that even breaks the gigabit speeds. IP based telephones are also much easier to upgrade and make advancements to compared to a cell phone where the towers have to be upgraded every few years to deal with newer technologies.
- phrstbrn, on 11/07/2009, -0/+1Why do they need to be battery operated? Send low voltage power down the coax/twister pair cable. It's how our current phones work.
I'm sure they can get bare bones VoIP to work on 5V and a couple of mA, even if it requires having a "low power" mode where all that works is basic phone service (all non-essential integrated "features" get turned off) - linagee, on 11/07/2009, -0/+1Nothing like a phone going out with a DMS100 too. (Carrier phone switch) There's always some piece of equipment that can fail.
- Yez70, on 11/07/2009, -0/+1They don't - it would be for power outages only. Sending voltage down the wire is one of the reasons we're all capped at 56k dialup (less than that actually), along with the need for dedciated voice lines.
Combining voice into data (VOIP) would eliminate the need for the legacy systems maintenance and would dedicate us to an all data system capable of more bandwith for everyone, not just urban areas.. - shawnfromnh, on 11/07/2009, -0/+1Phone service is available through cable companies is a true statement but unless they pass a law stating that you don't have to purchase the cable tv also since a lot of the phone services offered are often offered in a bundled service. They also fail to mention that like in our area the phone service that is bundled is verizon or some other phone company.
- oboshoe, on 11/06/2009, -1/+2You know...I really hate big enterprises that continually take us for stupid and rape our wallets.
But the meme "BIG" <insert thing you don't like> is starting to get a tad old and I'm starting to feel manipulated when I hear itit.
Lets go with something different...
How about EVIL cable
EVIL tobacco
EVIL Insurnance
Whaddya say? - nofx1510, on 11/06/2009, -0/+1We have a crumbling and decaying copper inferstructure when it comes to the POTS and i'm glad to see the push for a full VoIP system with the years to come. With VoIP it allows upgrades to come much easier and at a much cheaper cost because instead of having to require maintenance on two different systems you now only require maintenance on one.
- JAHred, on 11/06/2009, -0/+1http://rorr.im/digg.com/tech_news/big_cable_move_m ...
- yunus, on 11/06/2009, -0/+1Taking subsidies away from telephone companies helps Big Cable. That is their reason for suggesting this. The fact that it's a good idea is only secondary to their self interest.
- s73v3r, on 11/06/2009, -0/+1They try to sneak one in every once in a while, to keep us on our toes.
- PatrickBrown, on 11/06/2009, -1/+2They are right and in being right there is a new phrase that emerges to describe them:
Common Carrier
Time to stop the denial and start with the regulation, bitches! Sure, you can have subsidies, but you sure as ***** are considered common carriers now. - linagee, on 11/07/2009, -0/+1I don't get it. Who wants a large phone company in a rural area? That's the last remaining area where a small business can be set up to take their place...
- linagee, on 11/07/2009, -0/+1Why did the chicken cross the road?
Because there was a subsidy to do so.
So you see, they want to take away that subsidy. - Crosshare, on 11/06/2009, -2/+3Honestly though, they have an good argument with this one. Go figure.
- linagee, on 11/07/2009, -0/+1Your phone calls will be throttled randomly and cease and desist orders will be sent if you even think of humming a copyrighted tune over their phone lines.
- s73v3r, on 11/06/2009, -1/+1Cell phones don't work everywhere. I know several people that have landline phones because their cell phone doesn't work at their residence.
- kaelyiesta, on 11/06/2009, -3/+3Gee, I wonder why. It couldn't be because they were given utility monopoly privileges could it? Oh wait, it was:
http://mises.org/journals/rae/pdf/rae9_2_3.pdf
A guy who encourages his dog to be a vicious monster is not a hero for later putting a muzzle on it. That metaphor perfectly describes the same problem with our governments relation with the telecommunications industry. - danielttt, on 11/07/2009, -1/+1Let's try this. Let's shut down the rural electrification and telephony departments. let's fire all the employees associated. Let's bulldoze any dedicated office buildings and plant trees to molify the greenies. ( a magnanimous gesture of compromise with the left wing wackos). Let's write this whole proposal on one sheet of paper and take thousands of pages out of the code of federal regs... Let's look at it in 20 or 30 years to see the effect.
- tuka, on 11/07/2009, -1/+1great idea.... what happens when you forget your cell phone at work?
- s73v3r, on 11/06/2009, -1/+1It may not work for regular calling, but I believe that the POTS lines should still work for dialing 911, even if you're not paying for service.
- anonymousmedic, on 11/06/2009, -6/+2If this were a healthcare thread, we'd have people in here telling us how Big Cable is only out for profit, and to only use Celebrity Endorsed Tinaphone, the only phone with two cans and a string!
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