On Aug 5, 11:12*pm, PatM wrote:
On Aug 5, 2:30*pm, dpb wrote:

N8N wrote:

...

...Verizon ...
... Why *don't* more people just cancel their land
lines? *(I know why my parents don't, they live too far out in the
country to get cable. *Otherwise...)

Because the land line _IS_ more reliable. *Does she have backup
generator to keep the cell charged during power outages, for example?

It's called a car-charger. *I bet she had one.





I'd never consider eliminating the land line in a rural area, meself...

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Back in the BAD old days before COMPETITION when only one telephone
company was 'allowed' to operate in any one territory and land lines
were almost the only form of technology available land lines were the
ONLY RELIABLE means of phoning. Nowadays there are so many
alternatives and providers.

The one and only telephone company would 'apply' for rates to whatever
was the state/provincial or national authority that had given itself
the authority to REGULATE the phone system; but increases were not
always granted. There was great pressure on the telephone companies as
a result to provide reliable service throughout their total
territories.

An example: Some 55 years ago a hand crank magneto/battery telephone
on a multi party line in an outlying rural area, provided you could
get one, cost $1.67 per month. That included replacement phone
batteries (which lasted several years) and an annual telephone book
listing numbers. The manual switchboard service from an agent operator
in someone's home in the community was generally very good; in one
case a community was so satisfied that it petitioned to NOT have it's
agency service replaced by dial!

There were numerous MEASURERMENTS of the telephone system which
included 'Speed of Service' (Dial tone), 'Speed of Answer' (Operator
answer within ten seconds),'Held Orders' (Customers waiting for phone
service, and the reason!), 'Outages' (Phone service disrupted/
interrupted for more than 24 hours, and reason.), also priority was
given to 'Out of service' (Customers with broken service). And
overtime would often be granted to work to restore service if there
was anyone in a home sick/needing medical attention/disabled etc.).
Some of these were sent regularly to the regulatory authority, which
was often staffed by people familiar with the telephone industry and/
or familiar with the REGULATIONS under which the phone company
operated.

People often complained about the MONOPOLY that the telephone company
had and exercised. By the same token the telephone company and it's
employees were extremely conscious that they 'Were the only game in
town' and stories are legendary about how telephone line staff and
telephone operators would perform to maintain and restore service or
get emergency calls through.

These days it is very different; there are many companies competing
for the customer's dollar and a much wider range of services
available; many of which were, at least at first, considered more
trivial and therefore less essential than POTS (Plain Old Telephone
Service). Nowadays, texting, inter-net access even viewing movies via
a cell phone is considered normal/essential. There are many varieties
of cost packaging and companies spend a much greater amount of time on
selling/marketing etc. in order to get a share of the market.

Myself and members of my family have worked under both systems. The
older monopoly and the newer competitive one. The emphasis today is on
the bottom line. And customers are much more liable to be told "Well
if you will live in Little Bottom Cove 45 miles from downtown behind
two hills that block TV and cell phone signals (especially if
digital!) you can't expect the reliability and grade of service as in
an urban area! When there are more homes in your area, etc. etc. one
of the competing companies may find it is worth their while to service
your area more completely"!

This of course still doesn't take the onus off the providing company
to make reliable any service they are providing but the emphasis is
definitely different than in days of yore. And since many of the
alternatives depend on batteries (which have to recharged and/or
electrcity supply, in the name of economy not every small electronic
site has a backup generator, the newer-electronic technology modes are
INHERENTLY less reliable than the two bits of copper wire connected to
a switching unit (itself, these days, probably electronic!) in a
telephone exchange with large 8 to 24 hour reserve batteries and quite
possibly also a back-up automatic start generator.

We gets what we pay for. Eh?