Home phone- what technology do you use?

[Wayne M.]

I've been pondering this whole NSA surveillance disaster, and how a whole new world has opened up in our lifetime known to us as the internet, and how we've come to be so dependent on it. I had a chuckle the other day as I'm picking up on my never ending car project where I revisited some research I did in the early 1990's when I had no internet resource. I had to rely on Ma bell, the phone, and publications such as Hemmings motor news and magazines. Thinking about all the research I did, and if I didn't keep handwritten notes, there would be no trace. Not so with internet surfing or research. There are all kind of traces we leave behind.

At that time the only possible phone service was good 'ol copper. Unless you were being tapped- and from what I know, you knew it if you were- the call was PRIVATE. and left no trace of the content of the call. To this day, I still have what I call copper service, a traditional hardwired phone service. Recently I've come under pressure to ditch the copper and put my phone on my modem by my cable/ internet provider and Verizon, who already supplies the copper service and provides a competing FiOS TV/ internet service.

Doing this will digitize my phone service, take it off the old phone system and put it on the internet. It's bad enough that cell phone users have as much privacy as a naked person standing in the street in the middle of town during rush hour, now I'm thinking if I go internet with my phone, the same will happen with the landline. It won't be on land anymore so to speak.

There has to be a reason, besides a more efficient business, for the endless bombardment of solicitation via US mail and telemarketing and even door to door marketing that they want this.



Just for kicks, to see whats popular TDR land, here's a poll. Please vote your technology at your home.



What are your thoughts on telecom privacy?

 

[Tractorat]

I have a cable phone in my office. But my actual home phone is the plain ol copper pair. My phone lines have never gone down. The internet has, tv has, but my copper phone line has never gone down.

 

[HPSimpson]

I also have good old copper phone lines, since cell phone service in emergency doesn't work, no battery backup!

 

[PBJ2500CTD]

We too have kept the copper service for the home. It's more reliable and easier on the ears - nothing like the digital audio break-up we get on our cell phones. If you have the Google Maps application on your cell phone it tracks your location... go look in the history... read the acceptance agreements sometime. you''l find they can turn on audio, video, or any other feature, at any time WITHOUT your permission, or without notifying you. I prefer smoke signals, but the environmentalists would threaten to lock you up for causing Smokey the Bear emotional distress when you struck the match.

I agree with Joe Walsh - I'm an analog man in a digital world...

Welcome to cyberspace, I'm lost in the fog
everything's digital I'm still analog
when something goes wrong
I don't have a clue
some 10-year-old smart *** has to show me what to do
Sign on with high speed you don't have to wait
Sit there for days and vegetate
I access my email, read all my spam, I'm an analog man.

the whole world's living in a digital dream
it's not really there
it's all on the screen
makes me forget who I am
I'm an analog man

Yeah I’m an analog man in a digital world
I’m gonna get me an analog girl
Who loves me for what I am.
I’m an analog man

What's wrong with vinyl, I think it sounds great
LPs, 45s, 78s but that's just the way I am
I’m an analog man

Turn on the tube, watch until dawn
one hundred channels, nothing is on
endless commercials, endless commercials, endless commercials

the whole world's glued to the cable TV
It looks so real on the big LCD
murder and violence are rated PG, too bad for the children
they are what they see

the whole world's living in a digital dream
it's not really there
it's all on the screen
makes me forget who I am
I'm an analog man

yeah I’m an analog man in a digital world
I’m gonna get me an analog girl
Who loves me for what I am.
I’m an analog man

Yeah I'm an analog man in a digital world

 

[TJJEEPER]

Good ole POTS here but wife and I both have cells. Dunno why we have so many lines (2 regular and 2 cell).
As for privacy, I never expect any. I have a near nightly call with my brother where we randomly throw in phrases like "Thermonuclear Device" and "Weapons of mass destruction" just to force the listeners to follow along to our drivel of talk of hobbies. I suspect it works because on our calls we always hear strange clicks. Privacy is an illusion.

 

[Wayne M.]

Indeed the reliability of copper is a plus, I didn't even mention that BUT how ironic is it that you probably have a cordless handset that's reliant on electricity. That won't work when the power goes out. I do have an old cord non powered phone, but I'd have to dig it out to use it.
PBJ2500CTD, Joe Walsh is the best! I know the song and in fact there's a radio station ID here where he calls the DJ an analog man like he is.
Recently my cable modem went out and it was decided that I needed a new one. So I go down to the cable place and they give me a new one that has a phone jack and a battery back up. Thankfully we havent tested the battery and I don't ever plan to use the jack... .

 

[jgillott]

I have a cable phone in my office. But my actual home phone is the plain ol copper pair. My phone lines have never gone down. The internet has, tv has, but my copper phone line has never gone down.

We actually changed to internet phone through our local cable company due to the unreliability of our traditional land line phone. It was out very often and we finally had enough. Price has worked out to be much cheaper than our former land line.

 

[Bill Stockard]

We still have a home phone, but it's Verizon wireless just like our cell phones. We have a Verizon wireless modem connected to our house phone wiring system which costs much less than a land line and we were able to keep our original home phone number. The only disadvantage is that our Fax machine doesn't work with the wireless system.

Bill

 

[Jim W]

I am old school too still use Ma-Bell even for the internet. We do have three cordless phones that we use but the master bed room has the old Princess phone in it. We do have the cell phones also and the wife loves her blue tooth in the VW but when we call from the house it is usually the landline. Kids keep calling on the cell phone but it is off when we are home, they go nuts over that. In fact mine is never on even in the truck it is for emergences when we are on the road, drives my kids nuts.

Jim W.

 

[jeepit]

We were sick of all the political calls during the first oduma election so we went wireless. Never have had service interrupted and no more advertisement calls.

 

[Tractorat]

Indeed the reliability of copper is a plus, I didn't even mention that BUT how ironic is it that you probably have a cordless handset that's reliant on electricity. That won't work when the power goes out.

That is certainly a point of failure. However, we keep a hard wire phone on a shelf for just such an emergency. If the power goes out, we unplug the wireless phone and plug in the wired.

 

[PBJ2500CTD]

Back in 2001 we had a bit of an earthquake. You couldn't get through on a cell phone because the cell system was overloaded by callers for hours, but the land lines worked just fine. Also, depending on your cell carrier, you may not have service in a lot of rural locations. Most of the phone lines in our area are now underground. While we have a plethora wireless phones around the house, we tend to keep one hard wired phone in the house and one in the detached garage for those special occasions when a tree sheds a branch, or decides to lay down on hose comfy power lines, or when some silly driver tries to turn those bad power poles that jump out into the middle of the road into toothpicks. O, the joys of rural living...

 

[Wayne M.]

I just got this as an Email today!

Just got this as an Email today. :-laf

 

[Wayne M.]

Email I got today!

 

[BIGNASTY]

We use Verizon, cell tree tower bounced off a Communications satellite and back to the barn where Penny's horse translates our Alien speech back into your language and out via a hard wired telephone to prevent anyone from figuring out where we are

BUT THE LONG DISTANCE CHARGES ARE KILLING US

 

[Wayne M.]

Yea, that'd be a LOT of cranking right there!

 

[Tractorat]

Back in 2001 we had a bit of an earthquake. You couldn't get through on a cell phone because the cell system was overloaded by callers for hours, but the land lines worked just fine.

We were up at Whistler when that happened. Our high school age daughters were home (at school). The radio said seattle had been hit by a 7. 5 earthquake. We jumped in the car and headed home expecting to find everything gone. We tried to call the whole way home, but the cell just wouldnt work. Of course, when we got home, there was no evidence of an earthquake anywhere around where we live. (but the pots line was working fine. We spent the next couple of days taking calls from friends and relatives around the country trying to find out if we were all right.

 

[BIGNASTY]

Yea, that'd be a LOT of cranking right there!

SORRY WAYNE!!!
We use Verizon Cell Because we are OFF THE GRID!!!!!!!!!

 

[Missouri Mule]

We have a land line with wireless phones but I keep an old push button around. In 2004 Hurricane Charlie damaged most of the cell towers and knocked out electric and water( So much wind and rain the trees fell down pulling the roots out of the ground). Family kept calling our cell's had to tell them to call the land line (cells were breaking up).

 

[Wayne M.]

SORRY WAYNE!!!
We use Verizon Cell Because we are OFF THE GRID!!!!!!!!!

You have an interesting situation, because first I'm surprised you have any cell service at your place. Second, I'm sure someone had to live there before you- maybe before cell technology and there wasn't copper run in off the main road at some point.