vetz wrote:

Here in Scandinavia they are closing down the whole dialup telephone system in two-three years time. From then on it will only be mobile, broadband and IP telephone. Rural and old people who only have regular fixed phone will get a replacement that is either IP or mobilephone based (with adapters to those that want to continue using their old phones). If this goes smooth I guess all the big countries will learn and follow very soon.

Soon it will be impossible to even test these modems.

I wonder if they realize that telephones provide their own power for operation over the telephone lines. That is why you can still use the telephone when the power goes out. If they eliminate the old style phones and there is large scale power outage, telephone service will also go down because every telephone will need to be plugged into a wall outlet either permanently or for charging. I wonder how many people will end up dying when some natural disaster strikes that knocks out the power grid because they weren't able to phone for help because their telephone did not have power.

that's why there's a thing called UPS's... that's how telcos can skirt around the problem... FCC requires telcos to provide power and backup for POTS, but there is no such requirement for new shit, like FIOS.... so hands are untied for verizon as all they have to do is install a UPS where the demarc is and that powers the phones in your house for a day or two

but modems will always work as long as whatever you plug into is compatible with fax machines... VoIP systems like Magic Jack emulate POTS so that regular phones within a house can still work like they were used to.... fax machines DO work with it, and as long as you can do that, then you can run a modem off of it... no reason to, and it won't work very good, but you can

sliderider wrote:

I wonder if they realize that telephones provide their own power for operation over the telephone lines. That is why you can still use the telephone when the power goes out. If they eliminate the old style phones and there is large scale power outage, telephone service will also go down because every telephone will need to be plugged into a wall outlet either permanently or for charging. I wonder how many people will end up dying when some natural disaster strikes that knocks out the power grid because they weren't able to phone for help because their telephone did not have power.

If the power outage is large enough...you won't be able to plug it to the wall either...maybe mobile phones would work...but it's unlikely.

bloodbat wrote:

sliderider wrote:

I wonder if they realize that telephones provide their own power for operation over the telephone lines. That is why you can still use the telephone when the power goes out. If they eliminate the old style phones and there is large scale power outage, telephone service will also go down because every telephone will need to be plugged into a wall outlet either permanently or for charging. I wonder how many people will end up dying when some natural disaster strikes that knocks out the power grid because they weren't able to phone for help because their telephone did not have power.

If the power outage is large enough...you won't be able to plug it to the wall either...maybe mobile phones would work...but it's unlikely.

That's what I was saying. The old analog phones provide their own power over the telephone lines but there is no power signal with broadband phones but they still need electricity to operate. If your electricity is cut for an extended period, none of the digital crap will work. Your mobile will work for a little while until the battery drains but then you'll have no way to recharge it.

sliderider wrote:

That's what I was saying. The old analog phones provide their own power over the telephone lines but there is no power signal with broadband phones but they still need electricity to operate. If your electricity is cut for an extended period, none of the digital crap will work. Your mobile will work for a little while until the battery drains but then you'll have no way to recharge it.

Even if it works...relays end up requiring power too 😖.

central offices have UPS's and backup diesel generators for analog phone lines
you should read up on how this ancient technology all works

TheMAN wrote:

central offices have UPS's and backup diesel generators for analog phone lines
you should read up on how this ancient technology all works

Yes but if the analog phone network is taken offline then all that goes away as it will be unnecessary. A,T,&T is already petitioning to take the analog network offline and replace it with all digital service.

How often do natural disasters occur that cut the electricity for over one day? As you said, cellular phones will be keeping it going for some time (base stations got emergency generators/batteries) which in most cases will be enough time for the power to get back on. If it doesn't get back on within 48 hours, then we can assume that the catastrophe is so large that the emergency services will be overwhelmed anyway.

I can't remember last time the power were out for over 1 hour tops where I live. The large power outings in newer times in western countries have all been in the States, and every time I read in the newspaper that is because the power infrastructure in many areas are: 1. mainly built over ground making power lines more susceptible to nature's forces 2. not built & maintained with good enough redundancy. If that is true or just propaganda from the media/government to say that it won't happen here are another side though, but we have our storms and floods here too and beside from some rural places power is kept on or back within a very short time for the cities/towns.

For me I see little point in keeping the analog phone network open just in case of once every 50 year power outing.

I just wish solar power was cheap and powerful enough that everyone would install it in their roofs and get batteries installed inside their homes for backup!

That way we wouldn't need UPS units for our computers anymore! 😀

Leolo wrote:

I just wish solar power was cheap and powerful enough that everyone would install it in their roofs and get batteries installed inside their homes for backup!

That way we wouldn't need UPS units for our computers anymore! 😀

the problem with solar power is the fact that the majority of the day, the sun isn't hitting the panel. So you would need more panels to charge batteries. there is the crux of the issue. Battery technology has been lagging SEVERELY compared to other fields. If you want to be the next billionaire, develop a energy storage system like what you see on star trek. That's the next money maker.

I literally have a 3'x3' box 1/2 full of computer boards waiting to be scrapped. 9 out 10 of these boards are modems. I remember when high speed came out in my area like 15 years ago now. hell, I have faster internet on my PHONE than 99% of the country.

I am concerned with the reckless abandonment of land lines. Mostly because of the "what-if" scenarios. But thats why I have a few 12v dc CB radios in my garage. Its enough that if it REALLY GOT BAD, I could reach someone. probably the guy down the street from me with the ham radio antenna, but still... 😜

My circa 2007 Dell Latitude as well as my circa 2012 Asus both have dial up modems. I never use them but I have a dial-up account as a just-in-case type measure. My father's 2010 Dell desktop also has a modem which he regularly uses for sending and receiving faxes.

I wouldn't use them anymore, but I must say I do miss the BBS days with Bluewave Offline Mail reader, running my own BBS and being forced to learn all the various AT initialisation strings with the Hayes AT command set. Learning the AT Hayes command set was what got me my first job in an ISP!

Just like the MT32, the USR Robotics Courier v.Everything was another piece of hardware I dreamed of but could never afford!

Well there are a estimated 220 000, Dial-Up users still in south Africa, this isnt due to any other reason than our local telecom company keeping a monopoly on broad band and keeping broadband internet capped, and very expensive, two years ago we finally got uncapped due to a non-telkom regulated sea cable that all the ISPs got on-board with, we are still highly expensive comparatively speaking, I am currently using a 4meg uncapped but shapped line that costs me R1000 a month so roughly $125, ADSL is finally taking off...

Allso we still have a very large number of users who are on 2GB hard capped broadband connections...

PS all cell towers here have redundancy here ,ether UPS or generator, and can operate for several days without power, land lines tend to loose power aswell after several days I think telkom (Landline operator) cuts off the generators after a week due to costs...

FaSMaN wrote:

Well there are a estimated 220 000, Dial-Up users still in south Africa, this isnt due to any other reason than our local telecom company keeping a monopoly on broad band and keeping broadband internet capped, and very expensive, two years ago we finally got uncapped due to a non-telkom regulated sea cable that all the ISPs got on-board with, we are still highly expensive comparatively speaking, I am currently using a 4meg uncapped but shapped line that costs me R1000 a month so roughly $125, ADSL is finally taking off...

Allso we still have a very large number of users who are on 2GB hard capped broadband connections...

PS all cell towers here have redundancy here ,ether UPS or generator, and can operate for several days without power, land lines tend to loose power aswell after several days I think telkom (Landline operator) cuts off the generators after a week due to costs...

ouch, I send you my heartfelt sympathy. I just looked and I'm already @ 35GB of data this month and typical usage runs about 350gb a month. I get this @ 36/6 speed (fastes possible docis 2.0), and I only pay $225 a month. (includes a "landline" , hd cable, and 2 dvr boxes)

FaSMaN wrote:

currently using a 4meg uncapped but shapped line that costs me R1000 a month so roughly $125, ADSL is finally taking off...

Ouch! I don't think I should complain that I get a fiberoptic 60/60 mbit uncapped line for 90 dollars each month.