January 1, 2010

Change is coming to a telephone near you

Did the whole government takes away your analog television sit well with you? Prepare yourself for a rerun as AT&T is pushing the US Government to stop making them support analog phone lines (land lines).

I don't know about you, but I still think we-the-people lost out on the television deal... I still can't receive a digital television signal that doesn't continually break apart and I live right in Fort Wayne. We lost all those VCR tuners and all those tiny TVs we used to have. We still can't do things with TV tuners like we used to.

Do you see how it is once government gets involved in anything: everyone is pushed into the same cubby hole and change becomes a big hassle. Many people have already dropped their land lines in favor of cell phones or internet voice. I still think there's a certain security in a land line that's missing in cell phone and internet voice. I don't care if AT&T wants to drop land lines, but wonder what will happen should a solar flare, or something worse, knock out more modern communications systems. I suppose we'll find out, eventually.

2 comments:

Marsha said...

We're a cell only family for a few years now. I still miss the security of a phone that's fastened to the wall and a receiver with it's curly cord fastened to the base so I can't lose it. As for the TV, we have one analog and one digital, but we chose to go with satellite service. Any time it rains or snows hard we lose the satellite. Switching over to antenna for the digital TV may or may not work at that time. I miss analog TV.

Dan said...

We're a Dish network family, too, Marsha... we recently dropped all our extra HD channels because they so seldom come in without cracking up.

We have FIOS for Internet and Phone service. The battery backup lasts about 6 hours for the telephone should we lose power.

I read a home improvement recipe recently for running your cell phone through your home's land line wires so that all your phones work off your cell phone signal. Cool, huh?

http://www.instructables.com/id/Use_your_cell_phone_through_your_home_phone_wiring/