Dial-Up Redundancy

[SecTrainer]

Dial up redundancy.

Good post ten years ago.

POTS lines are going away. ATT reports cutting 700,000 per month since 2009. They estimate in 2014. they will be gone.

I just talked to a rep from AT&T who doesn't know where this comes from. They've been mostly eliminating a lot of old and unused lines. Almost all "bricks & mortar" businesses still depend on landlines and will do so for quite some time to come. Wireless ain't nowhere close to the services that are still provided by landlines (something a 'Larmguy should know very well), and the rep told me that there's still at least 50% of the population that expresses no interest whatsoever in getting rid of their landlines. Furthermore, there are still vast areas where it's going to be at least a decade before towers get built. Almost all of these areas are being served by landlines.

The twenty bucks is going to be cheap redundancy for awhile - and you can always drop it when/if the line "goes away" and/or wireless service gets so good that you can bet your life on it.

[LARMGUY]

I just talked to a rep from AT&T who doesn't know where this comes from. They've been mostly eliminating a lot of old and unused lines. Almost all "bricks & mortar" businesses still depend on landlines and will do so for quite some time to come. Wireless ain't nowhere close to the services that are still provided by landlines (something a 'Larmguy should know very well), and the rep told me that there's still at least 50% of the population that expresses no interest whatsoever in getting rid of their landlines.

No homeowners asked to go to digital TV either. That was the FCC's decision.

Furthermore, there are still vast areas where it's going to be at least a decade before towers get built. Almost all of these areas are being served by landlines.

Dec 30, 2009 10:02 pm
AT&T Tells FCC It's Time to Cut the Cord

By Tony Bradley, PCWorld
In response to a Notice of Inquiry released by the FCC to explore how to transition to a purely IP-based communications network, AT&T has declared that it's time to cut the cord. AT&T told the FCC that the death of landlines is a matter of when , not if, and asked that a firm deadline be set for pulling the plug.



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Security Sales and Integration Magazine

http://www.securitysales.com/Channel/Vertical-Markets/Articles/Print/Story/2010/06/Shift-and-Get-Off-the-POTS.aspx
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http://www.securityinfowatch.com/Residential+Focus/from-pots-pans

excerpt from above:
At a recent Central Station Alarm Association meeting, it was reported that carrier Verizon didn’t think there would be any POTS lines in another eight to 10 years.

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http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/blog/whos-got-communications-answer-when-pots-goes-away?view=all

How many more do you want?

Being primarily commercial we are going full data link cellular as primary but that technology is going away too being "upgraded". When the G's settle down a few years, we will decide upon which to focus on. Henceforth we have been toting the triple whammy. POTS, cellular and IP. All three for one money.

[SecTrainer]

No homeowners asked to go to digital TV either. That was the FCC's decision.



Dec 30, 2009 10:02 pm
AT&T Tells FCC It's Time to Cut the Cord

By Tony Bradley, PCWorld
In response to a Notice of Inquiry released by the FCC to explore how to transition to a purely IP-based communications network, AT&T has declared that it's time to cut the cord. AT&T told the FCC that the death of landlines is a matter of when , not if, and asked that a firm deadline be set for pulling the plug.



--------

Security Sales and Integration Magazine

http://www.securitysales.com/Channel/Vertical-Markets/Articles/Print/Story/2010/06/Shift-and-Get-Off-the-POTS.aspx
-------

http://www.securityinfowatch.com/Residential+Focus/from-pots-pans

excerpt from above:
At a recent Central Station Alarm Association meeting, it was reported that carrier Verizon didn’t think there would be any POTS lines in another eight to 10 years.

--------
http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/blog/whos-got-communications-answer-when-pots-goes-away?view=all

How many more do you want?

Being primarily commercial we are going full data link cellular as primary but that technology is going away too being "upgraded". When the G's settle down a few years, we will decide upon which to focus on. Henceforth we have been toting the triple whammy. POTS, cellular and IP. All three for one money.

You can post a thousand of these. There's been a lot of rather hysterical speculation about the "death of landlines". Others you quote ignore what I actually said, which isn't that landlines will be with us forever, but that their demise is not nearly as imminent as you said (2014).

ALL of these also ignore the other facts that the AT&T rep pointed out to me, not the least of which is the fact that cellular service is still a very long way of being capable of providing landline-quality service in large areas of the country - if any at all. And I'm not just talking about rural areas either. You can't get a decent signal half the time in DOWNTOWN MANHATTAN! (Check out the Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile complaint forums if you don't believe me! The service capability of the carriers still lags way, way behind the capability of the phones.)

So, my friend, you've spent a lot of time and effort to prove nothing. Regardless, I don't intend to get into a food fight with you when it comes to "future predictions" about cellular, particularly in the United States, which have traditionally been grandiose and way off the mark.

[LARMGUY]

You can post a thousand of these. There's been a lot of rather hysterical speculation about the "death of landlines". Others you quote ignore what I actually said, which isn't that landlines will be with us forever, but that their demise is not nearly as imminent as you said (2014).

ALL of these also ignore the other facts that the AT&T rep pointed out to me, not the least of which is the fact that cellular service is still a very long way of being capable of providing landline-quality service in large areas of the country - if any at all. And I'm not just talking about rural areas either. You can't get a decent signal half the time in DOWNTOWN MANHATTAN! (Check out the Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile complaint forums if you don't believe me! The service capability of the carriers still lags way, way behind the capability of the phones.)

So, my friend, you've spent a lot of time and effort to prove nothing. Regardless, I don't intend to get into a food fight with you when it comes to "future predictions" about cellular, particularly in the United States, which have traditionally been grandiose and way off the mark.

I wholeheartedly agree they are not anywhere near the reliability of the good old land line. My point is if the FCC wants them gone like analog TV, They will be gone. When ATT and the FCC are talking about setting dates. When ATT is shutting down POTS systems converting them to VOIP right and left. Cable companies are getting into phone and cellular. Then hoopla starts about VOIP vs POTS, who are you going to believe? Is it another Y2K scare? Or are you going to just be SOL some day in the future? Now when congress gets involved to mandate nationwide broadband in their stimulous bill. It's coming. I dont like it . I don't want it. but...

No food fight here, especially about cellular.

The following article also compares the TV to telephone connection. Excuse the pun.


POTS sunset on the horizon?

Daniel Gelinas - Jan 07, 2010 Add date:
Jan 07, 2010


WASHINGTON--Plain-old telephone service--the mainspring of traditional burg and fire alarm signal transmission--could be coming to a mandatory end. The Federal Communications Commission on Dec. 1 issued a public notice seeking comment on a National Broadband Plan that could include a mandatory switch from a public switched telephone network to IP, similar to the FCC-enforced switch from analog to digital broadcast television that occurred in early 2009.
FCC spokesman Mark Wigfield said while nothing had been decided, the FCC needed to collect as much information as possible about how such a nationwide switch over should be approached and what effect it would have. "There was a requirement in the stimulus bill that the FCC develop a National Broadband Plan for Congress within a year," Wigfield said. "Part of the question about going from circuit switch to IP is ... can you maybe align the incentives for investment and government incentives better if there's an IP network rather than this bifurcated circuit switch phone service? So we're looking at what these issues are and what it would take to make that switch."

In a Dec. 21 filing from AT&T to the FCC, the telecommunications giant claimed the switchover is not only necessary, but is already an inevitable and accelerating process. "With each passing day, more and more communications services migrate to broadband and IP-based services, leaving the public switched telephone network ('PSTN') and plain-old telephone service ('POTS') as relics of a by-gone era," the filing reads. "The Commission has been charged by Congress with formulating a National Broadband Plan that will result in broadband availability for 100 percent of the United States. That auspicious goal is within reach, but only if the Commission marshals its resources and those of other stakeholders to develop and execute a strategy ... A key component of that strategy is the orderly transition away from, and retirement of, the PSTN." The AT&T document further claims that currently "less than 20 percent of Americans rely exclusively on POTS for voice service. Approximately 25 percent of households have abandoned POTS altogether, and another 700,000 lines are being cut every month."



AT&T in a June 2009 press release suggested a deadline of 2014.

Read the entire article here

http://www.bcdvideo.com/solution-resources/industry-articles/pots-sunset-horizon

[Silva Consultants]

I don't think that wired telephone service for homes and businesses will be replaced by wireless anytime soon, but I do think that the way that wired service is provided to your premises is changing rapidly.

Old-time telephone service (POTS) used a hardwired copper pair between your phone and the telephone company's central office. Your phone was powered by a bank of batteries located at the central office. The simplicity of this technology was what made it rock solid and very reliable, even in times of extended power outages.

Today, your home phone service may look and act like POTS, but it may be something else entirely. A good example is the telephone service provided by the cable companies, which consists of a multiplexed signal which is run up and down the broadband cable network and decoded when it gets to your house.

Also, many homes and businesses are now using voice over internet (VOIP) systems which use a fiber optic network connection rather than traditional phone lines to carry telephone signals. These systems are often configured to look like POTS on both ends to enable the use of legacy telephone equipment. The user may think he has POTS, but he really doesn't.

Cable, fiber optic, and VOIP systems typically require lots of complicated electronic equipment along the cable pathway to your home or business. Most of this equipment is installed on poles or in cabinets along the roadway and needs local power to
operate. Because of the added complexity of these systems, they are inherently less reliable than traditional POTS in my opinion.

(Possibly the rantings of an old man who can't accept change.... )

[Mr. Chaple]

GlobalStar has unlimited satphone plans starting at $20/mo.

[SecTrainer]

GlobalStar has unlimited satphone plans starting at $20/mo.

Excellent, Mr. C! I should also have mentioned satphones as a redundancy resource. You can reduce their cost footprint by restricting their distribution to management personnel. A small agency might only have one or two, but when needed...

Notice that the Globalstar DCS-1200 phone has an RS-232 serial port for connection to a computer for data purposes. Not fast, I'm sure, but again, when needed...

Obviously, the thing to do is to contact a specialist at a company like Globalstar and tell them what you're trying to achieve, as cost-effectively as possible. They deal with this sort of thing all the time.

[Mr. Chaple]

Excellent, Mr. C! I should also have mentioned satphones as a redundancy resource. You can reduce their cost footprint by restricting their distribution to management personnel. A small agency might only have one or two, but when needed...

Notice that the Globalstar DCS-1200 phone has an RS-232 serial port for connection to a computer for data purposes. Not fast, I'm sure, but again, when needed...

Obviously, the thing to do is to contact a specialist at a company like Globalstar and tell them what you're trying to achieve, as cost-effectively as possible. They deal with this sort of thing all the time.

Actually you did point out satphones as a redundancy resource, I was just mentioning how much they've come down in price lately.