Tag Archives: Satellite TV

Home Phone, Landline Services

Are We Done with Landlines, Yet?

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Home Phone

We live in a modern age surrounded with a tech-savvy world and therefore, must abide by the changing trends around. But as we do change, we must spare a deeper look at the older tools to decide if they need to be really replaced or simply an addition of the new ones to the lot is just manageable. One such dilemma that concerns most households today is choosing between a cellphone and a landline. Let us compare to see if the former can, indeed, replace the latter?

Internet Speed

No matter how quick and efficient the technology has become, people tend to have different standards for Internet performance for home and elsewhere. While at a WiFi spot or on the road, people tend to be tolerant of jerky connection and low bandwidth because cell data technology is never that great. Yet, it’s a different story when people are at home as they expect their home networks to be great each time they use it.

Voice quality

The quality of a conversation is a whole lot better on a landline than on a cell phone. In fact, cellphone calling and networks are less than perfect. You can talk to a friend just fine from your cellphone, but data transmission gets interrupted constantly.

International Calling

The calling plans for landlines are usually cheaper than what you can find for a cell phone. Particularly, if you are making international calls, landlines can turn out much cheaper.

Satellite Services

If you’re using a satellite TV provider, they often end up charging you higher for the same services if you do not have a homephone. So, forgoing the landline, in a way, costs you more than what you pay otherwise.

Ease of Access

A homephone does not require charging. When it rings, you always know where it is. You do not have to turn the place upside down to track down where you put it when you dropped the groceries on the counter, or went to the bathroom.

911 Tracking

There is a huge difference in how 911 calls are handled through a landline versus the cellphone.  A landline call goes straight to the call center who immediately know where you are and soon, help is on its way within seconds. However, calling with a cell phone gets a cumbersome. As you have to waste time spelling out your complete address. If you are in a high-density area or apartment complex, they have no way to pinpoint your location with a cell phone.

All of us feel the need to take some cost-cutting initiatives to curb our expenses, chucking what’s no longer in use or helpful. However, choosing the landline for it is not a wise move yet because it has some superb irreplaceable features that we cannot afford to function without.

Home Phone

Post DirecTV Acquisition, AT&T Continues Hunt for More

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Post DirecTV

Even after the acquisition of DirecTV as well as its 18 million subscribers in Latin America, the hunt by AT&T Inc. (T) continues as it eyes more acquisitions in the region. The primary base for this rigorous quest by AT&T springs from the lucrative opportunities in the region because it is growing 10 times faster than the U.S. The $48.5 billion takeover of DirecTV by AT&T will hand over numerous satellite-TV subscribers to the American multinational telecommunications corporation, most of which are spread across Latin America, particularly in Mexico and Brazil. The deal with DirecTV will be the first of AT&T’s attempts to extend its reach outside the U.S. in more than 10 years. Such an expansion by the company is crucial to driving growth as the wireless industry becomes more saturated in the domestic sector.

The key to competing in the new markets lies in providing customers not only with satellite TV, but also mobile phone service and broadband access in countries like Mexico. These are places where less than half of the homes in the region pay for TV or Internet. In this regard, Jonathan Chaplin, an analyst with New Street Research commented that AT&T needs to acquire more assets south of the border if it is targeting growth outside the U.S. The move by the U.S. telephone giant is geared by the fact that DirecTV has a great competitive product in Latin America, but it will also need broadband capabilities. The company has been testing wireless Internet access where it may make more sense to buy large landline networks that already have broadband subscribers.

Continuing with options in the U.S. that are limited to expanding its phone and TV services, AT&T is still trying its hand at making new offerings such as home security and selling wireless service to connect cars to the Internet. However, these opportunities are still in the early stages.