Before we trash the old, copper-wire (or even fiber-optic) landlines,
I'd like to point out an inconvenient truth: in a lot of places and
circumstances, cellphones will not work. Here are just a few cases
where cellphones will fail:
1. Below ground, in parking garages, the below-ground levels of
hotels, etc. I would imagine a lot of basements fall into this
category. It's really annoying when you have to leave a meeting and
go several levels up to make or receive an essential call.
2. Blind spots in existing coverage, where a signal from a cell
tower doesn't reach--because of buildings in the way, odd quirks of
the terrain, the intrinsic limits of the cell towers, etc. When I
was looking for a cellphone provider, I found a lot of complaints
from once-hopeful subscribers who could not get service from their
own carriers inside their own apartments, in a supposedly covered
area. (Of course, the disappointed subscribers could not get out of
their cellphone contracts, in spite of the lousy service.)
3. As was mentioned in an earlier posting, hilly terrain means that
those in valleys sometimes can't get coverage, because of the
intrinsic limitations of cell tower technology. Areas such as West
Virginia (right next door to the National Capitol area) and the
Mountain West might just be out of luck if landline service gets
trashed in favor of cellphones.
4. One personal case: in the National Radio Quiet Area, near the
radio telescopes at Green Bank, where my uncle's farm is located.
Cellphones are not allowed there, so no landlines means no telephone
service. Somehow I just don't see them tearing down the radio
telescopes just because Big Corporate Telecom does not want to bother
with landlines any more. The result: a wide area where there is no
telephone service at all.
There are probably a lot of other cases where cellphones are not
viable, but where landline service would work--and does work at
present. This is IN ADDITION TO areas where landline service is now
available, but where it doesn't seem PROFITABLE to put in cell
towers. If you've looked at cellphone service coverage maps, perhaps
while shopping for a cellphone provider, you know that there are
areas where there is no service at all, from any carriers.
I'm really happy for young, mobile professionals who carry expensive
smartphones everywhere, are in constant communication with all the
rest of the planet, and who don't need landlines any more. I'll bet
it gives them a glow of inner satisfaction to be so perfectly
technologically up-to-date.
But until the telecoms get all the bugs worked out for near-universal
cellphone service (including those listed above and in other
postings), abolishing landlines is a major disservice to this
country, and a trashing of the common good in favor of Big Telecom
corporate profits.
--Constance Warner
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