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I'm going to create a new thread for my reply, since the two topics differ so much. On 6/8/2013 10:29 PM, Randy Cole wrote: > [OT] We have had the number so long that the copper was not grounded (and > of course there is no network interface). It was originally a party line, > and it went to the former Central Office building that is now a health > club. In fact the copper in the neighborhood still runs in that direction, > and is picked up from there and runs underground to the present CO. > Your vanishing central office is going to become a much-more-common occurrence, as fiber-optic cables have enough bandwidth to obviate the need for switching calls onto and off scarce inter-city "trunk" connections: as Shannon pointed out, more bandwidth means less switching, and telephone buildings are being transformed from "switches" to large-scale A-to-D converters, where your local copper pair (which will also go away at some point) is transformed into a virtual circuit on a fiber that travels to an adjoining city (or state) where it is connected to the actual switch. At some point, the phone network will be retired: it survives now simply because there's no quick or cheap way to educate the public on how to use a different addressing scheme other than area codes and "phone" numbers. I don't know if Skype or similar PC-centric schemes will become the new standard, but at this point, the old-line telephone companies are fighting a rear-guard action while they attempt to find a new way to "monetize" the network which users are in the process of bypassing at an ever-increasing rate. Of course, cellular telephones will slow the transition, since a new generation of users has learned the habit of using ten-digit set identifiers to ring their friends, but even there, "smart" phones are increasingly able to route voice and video via the net, without relying on the old-world virtual circuit paradigm. E-911 is the hardest nut to crack: accurate location identification and ubiquitous access has allowed municipalities to dramatically thin their staff of first-responders, and to retire buildings and equipment that taxpayers are increasingly picky about in tough economic times, even as governments pay our favorite monopolies to provide a separate tandem and transport system dedicated to E-911 exclusively. However, the switch to cellular coverage has removed many of the advantages of the E-911 system, since cell users aren't tied to a single address, and cell networks can't be relied on in an emergency anyway: they aren't anywhere near to the survivability of the wired telephone system, as demonstrated by the widespread outages in Boston following the Patriots day attack. However, even though it's not reliable during emergencies and not available to all at affordable prices, cellular will replace wired service during the transition from "The Bell System" to whatever-we-decide-to-replace-it-with. As a precursor of things to come, mobile phones are illustrative: the cell towers are already connected via microwave or fiber links to regional switching centers, and the lack of per-minute pricing on long-distance calls has spared the mobile providers the need of dealing with the immense (and immensely expensive) apparatus of hardware, software, and personnel required to bill for long-distance service, thus giving cellular providers enough of an edge that they have become the only profit center worth mentioning at old-line phone companies such as Verizon. In addition, cell companies have been aggressive in adopting cost-saving measures: they've moved both their wireless and wired apparatus of transport from full-bandwidth circuit-switched paradigms to "if-available" and "Best Effort" designs that only promise to provide the choppy, echo-laden, high-latency shouting matches that cellular users now think of as "normal" phone service. I suppose it's possible that the mobile telephone companies will gather enough support in Congress to start openly offering high-priority service to those whom pay more, but most users under the age of thirty have no idea of what the "old" phone network delivered, and so they don't know what they're missing, and don't know that it's possible to do anything better. The question is "What's next"? Bill P.S. In the all-things-old-are-new department, Ma Bell sells a "Ringmate" (YMMV) service that allows added phone numbers on your regular phone line. It's just a good-old-party-line connection, with both phones located in the same house. -- Bill Horne 339-364-8487
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