what about dsl?

Hallelujah!!!

Welcome to Australia....the end of the world is nigh.

If that's true, the best thing about it would be the disappearence of those ugly phone wires.

too bad the US mobile services suck like crap!

Pigeons won't have anywhere to perch!

I've gone cell only; no complaints so far.

Great. Now instead of a reasonable monthly rate, the greedy bastard phone companies will be able to charge twice for the same call (outgoing and incoming), plus collect a bewildered array of access fees, activation fees, inconvenience fees, days-ending-in-y fees and CPB (crippling balloon payments).

Activation fees? C'mon, how much does it cost to pay some monkey to press a button or two.

farking Telus.

The Bells are going to die a quick and understandable death. Unless they un-tweak and allow dry DSL lines

in the future we will communicate telepathically - while cruising around in our jet packs.

We've been doing this for a few months now. No telemarketing calls, no extra phone bill, no missing important calls. Glad we made the move!

the only reason i have a landline is for my tivo to call into.... which now can be done though my cable internet connection! woo! i can be hip and on the cutting edge. happy day.

not so fast there, future guy. they'll always be there as a back-up. don't forget that almost all of the internet travels through "land lines", telephone or not. hell, we still have AM radio, with tons of channels on it.

fark POTS and fark DSL. Cable modem and cell phone for me.

in the future we will talk on the 'Spacephone' to our 'Space Friends' while enjoying our 'Space Beverages'

rebeccahines, just wait until you start getting telemarketing calls on your cell. It will happen, just like it has happened to me, and you won't be happy. Oh, and text message spam! Ahh, the joys of technology...

I don't even have a cell phone. And my landline isn't even cordless.

Is it bad if you're further behind the times than how old you are?

cable modem.
cellphone.

just as the PC replaced the typewriter, so too these are replacing the telephone line.

it's illegal for telemarketers to call your cell phone. I believe the legislation involved is the one where it bans fax spam, since both of them involve the receiver paying for the cold call. I know that doesn't stop telemarketers from calling your cell, but any phone worth a damn will list the incoming phone number, which you can look up and find out who to sue.

But with the DNC list going into effect soon, you might get more telemarketers calling your cell anyway, since they'll claim you have some dubious "prior purchase" from them.

But how will we hack into The Matrix?

/someone had to say it

Does this mean I have to give up my rotary phone?

Call me when they finally get around to selling those farking rocket packs we would be able to buy in the year 2000 that they promised me back in 1960.

Until then, I remain unimpressed.

I heard it's coming, uofmWriter. But right now it's sweet, blessed silence.

And when they do call, I'll just submit a survey to get ideas on how to deal with telemarketers.

/late-night sarcasm

Hell, I went totally wireless last month and it has been great. No telemarketers, and the only calls to ring my phone have been for me. Instead of calling the house and asking to speak to whomever, they call the "person" (my wifes number and mine are only 1 digit different.) This has proved that 90% of the calls have been for my wife and not me. I love it. If it is her phone ringing I don't get up. I just say, it's your phone as I have a musical ring tone.

goodbye and goodriddance, overpriced land lines.

ever look at how many different taxes are on your phone bill? 911 tax, federal tax, state tax, county tax,
manhole tax (manhole tax?!), yadda yadda yadda.
it's not worth it

The plus side to my system is I never have to interact with the inlaws again since the call her number. I don't answer her phone. Before going wireless it was like "Hello? Oh Hi mom. I've been doing good, you? Really? How's the (insert something here) doing? You want to talk to (wife)? Ok, hold on.......

Now they just call her number. I don't have to talk to them! Yeah!

of course it will become obsolete, but we will still need that wonderful infrasctructure that can't be destroyed by rogue airwaves... solid land lines are harder to break than to interfere with airwaves.. thus, ham radio's are still ultra useful because of their distances, repeaters, and all around simplicity for keepoing communications open.. todays hi-tech cellphones and crap are to sensitive to interference.. a ham will always transmit and receive it's signal :P

Been land line free for two years. Only two telemarketing calls from a previous buisness relationship. They hang up when you tell them it's a cell phone.

*shakes fist at sky, where the admins live in their diamond palace*

"What do you want from me?!"

Was I the only one who thought that said "telephone land mines"?

where will birds chill out?

I hate talking on the phone, therefore no cell phone. I have my phone hooked to an answering machine and the ringer turned off, so my friends know to leave a message if they want me to call them.

If it's an emergency, they can drive to my house and knock on the door. I didn't put the phone in for other people's convenience.

For those who keep asking where the birds will perch, 90% of the wire hanging out there is electric, not telephone.

Yet Verizon is so farking behind the times in my neighborhood, they'll discontinue "land-lines" before we're finally able to get DSL.

Adelphia isn't any better.

/hates dial-up

strange, been landline forever, still landline, will probably always be landline (my stupid farking crappy cellphone only? bah!), yet i only get maybe 1 telemarketer call every 2-3 years...

/not kidding

batteries,

the new sliced bread.

cable modem is not an option for those who want decent upload speed.

As for DSL, can't get it where I am at, 13,000+ feet from the switch. I do have Verizon Wireless on my cell with the free Express Network with 140K connection to the Internet. Though I only use it on my laptop, I have cable modem for the truly high-speed access.

Rozinante
"Does this mean I have to give up my rotary phone?"

You have a Museum of Artifacts in your house ? Sweeeet !

Weird, but even though I'm 35, I can't remember the last time I saw a rotary phone. Even scarier, I do remember when AM radio was all music, and there were only a few stations on FM that played music.

AND YOU KIDS STAY OFF MY FARKIN' LAWN, OR I'LL CALL THE COPS ON MY ROTARY !!!!

and the birds will still have the power lines to chill out on

Telemarketers don't care if my phone's a cellular. They don't care if it's against the law or not, they call anyway. Fortunately, I can turn it off. As an extra measure, my cell phone is on the national DNC list. I'm not taking any chances.

Cable modem and firewall + cell phone = no outdated landline that can be cut by some ignoramus gardener OR knocked out by a storm.

CALL ME OLD FASHION STOP BUT THE TELEGRAPH STILL DOES EVERYTHING I WANT IT TO STOP I SEE NO NEED TO SWITCH STOP

i have two rotary phones in my house.

one of them is sitting right next to my keyboard as I type this.

old rotarys are way more stylish than new touchtones..

and how often do you absolutely have to dial really, really fast?

Since going wireless the only "strange" problem I have is the electric/cable/gas/whatever company call me to say they are coming out to my house while I am at work. I simply tell them to call my wife since she is the one at home. Feels "weird" taking those kind of calls at work since I never got them before going "wireless"

Did feel nice though once when the cable guy called me stating that he was in my driveway waiting. I told him that I was in traffic and will be there in about an hour, and that he better wait until I get there. He did. Felt good making him wait.

Whew!!! I'm glad somebody thought of the birds!

I've had no home phone for 4 years now, and to be honest I never even think about it. I am very happy with cellular, besides, you can't get your home phone play those clever ringers they have now days.

LIES! LIES! LIES!