Cutting the cord - America loses its landlines

The Economist (U.K.) ^ | August 13, 2009

[Ditter]

Most of the time when I hear a voice that tells me to “dial 1 for English”, I have found that if I don't ever push a button, I will get a real person eventually. Once you show that you have a push button phone instead of an old dial phone, you are hooked into their system. Try it.

[raybbr]

Question: If I do not subscribe to a landline service, will the phone company know I hacked into their box and am stealing their 5 volts?

If you have no dial tone then you have no voltage. Can't hack something that isn't there. Unless you are talking about going to a main box.

[I Buried My Guns]

I'm indeed talking about opening the box on the outside of my house. The phone line comes off the pole and goes to that box. Inside that box is another, smaller box that says "Phone company access only". I opened it.

[raybbr]

I'm indeed talking about opening the box on the outside of my house. The phone line comes off the pole and goes to that box. Inside that box is another, smaller box that says "Phone company access only". I opened it.

Put a meter across it. I bet you have no voltage. That is one of the things that pisses me off about the Phone comapany. They charge $45 to "initialize a phone line" when all they are doing is pushing a couple of buttons on a compute to activate the relay that operates your line. It basically takes about five minutes. Then they call you and ask if it's working.

If you have no service then I would bet the relay has been de-activated and you have no power to your house.

[wintertime]

We use Skype over the computer for all phone calls.

We do have an emergency cell for emergencies. It costs $3 and 5 cents a minute. We use it about 3 or 4 times a year.

Our adult children have moved to Skype as well. I love the video cam because I can see the grandchild and they can see me. Just last night my little 2 year old grandson showed me a leggo truck that he made.

[wintertime]

Try Skype over your computer.

We have a landline DSL for our computers but the fee is much, much less than having phone service.

By the way, we to live in a rural area and have dead zones problems with cell phones.

[Clay Moore]

Ring voltage on a copper line is over 100 volts. It WILL shock you.

[I Buried My Guns]

I put a voltmeter on the box. No current. I am not an electrician so I tried every possible combo. Still no current.

[Venturer]

Thanks, I will

[decimon]

The telcos are also a source of income for the power utilities. All those telephone poles are really power poles.

[Straight Vermonter]

When you call 911 on your land line it dosnt matter if you become unconscious or if the intruder takes away your phone. the 911 people have your address. The cell phone wont do that for you.

That was true about 10 years ago, not any longer. People are found all the time by their cell signal. As long as the phone is on they can find you even if you hang up. Of course that is both good and bad.

[raybbr]

I put a voltmeter on the box. No current. I am not an electrician so I tried every possible combo. Still no current.

Did you have it on DC or AC? As I said, if you have no phone line then you probably have no power.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***We plug the cellphones into the car chargers. They often come with the cellphone, free. ***

That is kind of hard to do when your car is covered with about two inches of ice as we had last winter. No power for three days. We did have landline telephone.

[elcid1970]

In WWII the Berlin telephone system proved indestructible after years of aerial bombardment and later, Soviet shelling in the final siege in 1945. In the final battle combatants on both sides measured the situation by dialing phone numbers at known locations. Whoever answered, either in Russian or German, signalled the ownership of that location.

Full disclosure, I don’t own a cellphone and don’t care if I ever do. My desktop is on a DSL hookup to my landline, and I am not thus cut off from the world.