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AT&T Pushing Bill to Discontinue Traditional Landline Service

No doubt the present age is the era of cellphones, but lovers of traditional landline phones are not yet extinct. A number of people are using traditional landlines for homes and businesses in California. But state lawmakers are going to pull plug on these old telephone services.

AT&T

“It is my connection to the world,” said Ruthanne Shpinner for whom her landline is her lifeline. But, in the near future, she might lose it.
A bill is being pushed by Shpinner’s phone company, AT&T, to let phone companies in California put an end to traditional landline service.
Customers could keep landlines if they want, but they may use alternate technologies such as voice over internet protocol, or VOIP, says AT&T.
Bill sponsor and San Jose Assemblyman Evan Low put forward that the old copper wires and switching stations used to route land line calls are quite exorbitant in terms of maintenance for a diminishing number of customers. He is of the view that money would rather be spent investing in new telecommunications technology.
“The plain old telephone system known as pots is rapidly approaching irrelevance,” said Low. “We’re modernizing with the times. We liken this from going to analog to digital.”
Mark Toney of the Utility Reform Network is of the view that the change would cause many to lose a trustworthy service in times of emergencies.
“We think it would be an absolute catastrophe. Our first concern is public safety,” said Toney. “The old landline telephone service will operate two weeks without electricity.” He is of the opinion that the substitutes such as cell services or VOIP are not so reliable in times of emergency.
But Ken McNeeley of AT&T holds a different opinion. As per him “The best phone in case of emergency is the phone you have in your hand”
There are state regulators who are against the bill, citing public safety and reliability. Some opponents believe that the real purpose is money.
As per records, AT&T has invested above $750,000 in lobbying at the capitol on a series of recent bills, including Lows AB 2395.
Among all this, the real challenge still remains in convincing people to stop using the traditional landline.
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” said Shpinner.

AT&T Sees Increase in Landline VoIP

Recently procured data has enabled AT&T to infer that the number of customers has continued to increase for VoIP-based voice service as compared to wireline customers. In the first quarter itself, there has been a growth in the form of 5 million new subscribers for U-verse voice service along with an increase in broadband and video subscribers.

The growth in the number of new IP-based U-verse broadband customers was tremendous. Besides seeing a gain in new customers, AT&T has converted around 80 percent of it’s DSL subscribers to IP-based U-verse broadband where it’s available using it’s 1 Gbps fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) services.

A rising number of AT&T customers are buying a great deal of dual play bundles that include broadband and VoIP service. In an interview, the AT&T vice president of voice and data products said that many of their customers purchase both products but some of them are moving from IP to the DSL network.

E-911, call forwarding, and call blocking are the features introduced by AT&T that differentiate it from other VoIP players such like Skype and Vonage. Moreover, customers can experience a TDM-based equivalent service because the internet network is managed.

Currently, AT&T is offering three U-verse Voice packages. The first is the U-verse Voice International, with the help of which a user can make limitless calling in the U.S., its territories, and Canada, and get discount on calls to other countries. The second is the AT&T U-verse Voice Unlimited with the help of which a person can make limitless calls within the U.S. and Canada, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Northern Marianas. The last is the AT&T U-verse Voice 200 with the help of which a person can make limitless calls to other U-verse Voice customers and avail 200 minutes of anytime calling to anybody in the U.S., the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Northern Marianas.

The Vice President also added in his statement that the rising telecommuting trend is also causing users to rethink using just a cell phone. Call quality through mobile handsets also depends on the proximity to the nearest cell tower, which is another factor driving users to opt for this service.

In the end, he added that voice quality of wireless carriers is not good enough to support conference calls. However, this can be assured in case of landline phones with the help of their services.