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Ditching your Landline Just Got Easier
QuePasaCalabaza writes "The FCC has approved a bill 5-0 that allows consumers to take their land line phone numbers and carry them over to thier wireless phones. USA Today has one of the first scoops on this ruling. The official news release [Word|PDF] is there."
So I still can't ditch my land line.. unless I want to get into bed with the evil cable company that is.
Smeghead every day of the week.
and on vacation find me...
It was always easy, just throw it into the darn ditch by the side of the road! (Yes, this is funny. Laugh.)
On a side note, does it disturb anyone else that a mere 5 people control such weighty decision affecting telecommunications?
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur
This will change the way I run my portable sex chat line.
Just as long as you don't need to use your phone during an emergency.
Hell, I cannot get reception during home football games much less after a tornado rips through the state.
Land line is also good for your home's alarm and tracking where a 911 call is made from.
I guess I'm just an alarmist, but when you need to call someone, a land line is significantly more reliable than a cable phone or cell phone.
I'm all about getting rid of my landline, but i'm a DSL customer. If I were to get rid of my phone, would DSL still be able to be used on that line?
Has anyone had any knowledge about this?
Is it just the phone companies way of getting more $ out of people saying you need a _working_ phone on that line for dsl, or does it actually require a working phone #? (escapes me as to why it would)
... in the UK. I've managed to keep my mobile number for a couple of years now, but they did it by requiring every mobile number to start 07... That makes it impossible to have your home number on the phone :-(
Simon
Physicists get Hadrons!
An easier way for the FBI to monitor us all.
-Seriv
And the next thing is FAA will approve that you can use your car as a personal airplane... :P
-- There is no spaam
As if enough o*--- riends are get*==shh* rid of lan*==-- lines and going j***st with ce*==== ones.
So many people say that no other product would survive if it worked like some OSes did, crashing all the time. Cell phones are 10x worse, and they're EVERYWHERE.
+5:offtopic,but anti-American
I want the same phone number for my cell and landline. If I'm home, I'll save airtime, if not, I'll pick up cell.. When will someone vote on that..
...is a way to keep DSL service w/o an old-fashioned land line.
What about wanting to go back to landline service?
I'm tired of my cell service and just want to put my wireless number on a landline. Or better yet, put my wireless number on a vonage line.
"The FCC has approved a bill 5-0 that allows consumers to take their land line phone numbers and carry them over to thier wireless phones."
Well that's nice. Unfortunately being unemployed, and being unable to afford broadband. Means that I can't afford a cell phone, and landline (Internet) at the same time.
a commerical for a new service from Cingular that would allow you to tie your cell phone to ring to your home phone when attached to a device they sell. And you don't use wireless minutes when answering at home. So, you could have the bext of both worlds.
How will TiVo know what's going on?
You can't even record a single show without first making a telephone call on a landline. Even the DirecTiVos which get their listing from the satellite.
Is there a way to plug a normally landline-connected device into a cell phone for the occasional call?
Send your friends messages of love at fuck-you.org
Now take that knife away from my throat
I have (luckily) gotten no telemarketing phone calls on my cell phone, but I was littered with them on my land line. Why would I want my cell number published? Why would I want to pay *extra* to not have it published, and why would I want to pay more in phone company "surcharges" for this "benefit"?
I ditched my land-line a long time ago, and never missed it. I appreciate the concept, but I think I'd take a pass on this opportunity.
I understand if you've had your phone number for years why this might be a nice option, but for me (who moves all too frequently, which assisted in my desire to ditch a land line alltogether), this just isn't a factor.
...aren't most of these landlines already 'ditched?' I would suggest 'get rid of' or 'stop paying for' as a more accurate alternative.
I'm all for ditching the landline but then I'd have two mobile phone numbers. That doesn't sound very useful to me. Unless companies figure out a way to incorporate both numbers to ring on one cell phone, count me out.
GSM provider Fido is pimping their CityFido plan. $30 USD/mo. Unlimited local calling, and they'll gladly hijack your home phone number for you :)
http://www.cityfido.ca/
-db
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Is there a POTS equivilent for IANA?
are you mad?!?
... hell i didn't even -need- the do-not-call registry.
one of the few things that makes sole cell ownership preferable to a landline is that the cell companies don't (or can't) sell their registries to telemarketers.
since i've gone land-line-less
but if i took my landline number onto my cell service - man i'd be doubly infuriated at any telemarketing - even if it was restricted to traffic allowed by the do-not-call registry.
(non-profits, political advocacy, and any company who has sold you products or services in the last 18 months -- all cleared to bother you as much as they want.)
// "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"
I never got any telemarketing calls on my cell phone, but I do get quite a few on my home phone (regardless of do-not-call thing). I am guessing I will start getting them on my cell if I switch the number and will have to waste minutes / be bothered all the time by the telemarketers? No, thanks. Caller ID helps, but only to a degree...
...remember good 'ol times when IP used to mean Internet Protocol....
...so this isn't for you. Keep your landline.
Frankly everyone should keep a landline for emergency calls at the very least. Lord knows I don't want to be searching for service if I'm bleeding to death on the floor.
Attention deficit disorder is a complicated issue, spanning several major... HEY LET'S GO RIDE BIKES!
A few articles have detailed the problem, and it all revolves around area codes. Without expressed limits what would stop some idiot from New York wanting to transfer his line to his new California home?
Perhaps if the phone system could ditch area codes as geographical representation. It should not be too hard, in Atlanta we have 4 area codes all covering the same LARGE area (largest free calling zone in US)
404,770,678, and 470
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
My g/f works as a residential phone rep at Verizon and not only have they not been told of any such new regulation, there has not been any training or new systems to support the new regs. I emailed the contact at the FCC and have received no response regarding their ability to enforce this regulation.
"Where is my mind?"
Say heeeeeellllllllo to telemarketers on you mobil now!
My landline and mobile line are one and the same. I just use a 12,450.775 mile long coiley-cord. Available at your local Radio Shack.
a burglar cuts your land line before hitting your house; oldest trick in the book. Cuts off the phone-home feature of most home alarm systems, particularly since the ones that do have a "cellular backup" feature charge big extra fees for that feature.
I like always having a cell phone available. If you suspect a home burglary and find that your phone doesn't work, you'll be damned glad you have that cell, because you're facing one of two kinds of opponents.
#1. A professional who has anticipated your alarm system.
#2. A stalker-type who has surveiled you, knows you are home, and has plans for you.
Either way... I'll keep my cell AND land line.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
I'm sure the phone companies will be horrified at the thought of changing their systems to accommodate this ruling, and will fight it tooth and nail.
I'm also sure that even before they start complaining about it, they'll be tacking a new "Number portability" surcharge on the phone bills of all their customers.
Now telemarketers can no longer screen out cellphone blocks so expect more telemarketing calls on your cellphone as they can correctly claim that they no longer have the ability to tell if a number is a cell number or not.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Ditching your land line for a mobile phone sounds terrific if you are single and want to make sure that your friends and potential mates can get in touch with you 24/7. But, I'm old and gray and live with ... other people!
And I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I'm not alone in this (no pun intended). Most households have > 1 person in them and even single households will have a high probability of turning into multi-person households.
Until there is a 1-n mapping for these numbers the utilitze and newsworthiness of this seems to be the hype. I want a single number and I want it to ring on my cell phone, my wife's cell phone, the kids' cell phone and the dog's cell phone. And then I want a private number for the SAME cell phone so we can also have some privacy in our conversations to boot.
Now just get my wireless phone to pick up signal where I need it (like at HOME maybe???) and this will be a great thing. Can we now get the lawmakers to force wireless carriers to push their signal in the areas they promise they cover and in reality don't? Far more useful if you ask me....
A $4.99 monthly charge on your phone service with a line item description of "Number Portability Fee". After all, the telcos will certainly claim that they will need to spend billion$ to implement number portability. They will certainly be entitled to recoup their costs.
I dumped my home phone when my son moved out to college. I hated the damn thing. His friends quit calling when he moved but the telemarketeers did not. So now I only have a cell phone and I do perfectly well with that.
I don't get unsolicited calls on the cell phone (yet) and I don't get textspam (yet) either.
Matter of fact I am going to have text messaging disabled on my phone, they charge me $5 a month for it and I've only used it once to see how it works. They also charge me $5 a month for Internet capability and I don't need that either. Matter of fact I bet if I look over my bill closely I could find a bunch of stuff that I could trim out.
But as for having my home number go to my cell phone, I don't think so. That will just give the telemarketeers a hot line direct to me, 24/7 and I don't like that concept.
Theoretically you only need a physical line to a dslam, but that's not how it works in the real world. I have friends that work in the DSL industry and have tried so many different ways of getting rid of my land line, but they always tell me I need to have an account with the phone company. They need that computerized record of where I'm connected (since they move my physical connection to different hardware on occasion) in order to provision my DSL line.
In the early days of DSL you could fool the ILECs into dropping your land line while still keeping DSL, but that is no longer possible with either ILECs or CLECs (at least, it isn't in any city with any company I've tried).
IANAL, but I play one on
I got a cell phone when I started studying 5 years ago. And there wasn't any good resons for me to have also a landline.
Luckily, here bundling of different products is illegal and ISPs cannot force you to take landline in order to have a DSL.
"thier" what is up with the misspellings on slashdot lately? they've been all over the place.
Red Hat is for people who hate Windows, FreeBSD is for people who love Unix.
www.putertech.net
stop the bullshit in letting verizon yank dsl if I switch local carriers
stop the bullshit with cost recovery fees
stop the bullshit with universal access fees
stop the bullshit with "line fee mandated by FCC" fees
stop the bullshit with other fees
adopt truth-in-advertising that includes all fees and federal/regional taxes in single price cell phone advertisements on per minute plans
stop the bullshit with trying to regulate VOIP
stop the ass-sucking of the mpaa/riaa
then we'd be better off!
How is that OT?
Of ditching the land line:
1.
Multiple outlets no more. I know when Grandma calls it is nice to have a few of us able to listen in at the same time.
2.
TiVo/DSL/BBS's.
3.
Emergency Calls. Would suck to not have service/coverage during an emergency.
4.
Battery life. (I can choose to not go wireless with a jack or two in the house to ensure dead batteries and misplaced handsets don't ruin the chances of contacting me)
On the plus side: I am sure the companies that build and sell aftermarket replacement batteries for cell phones love this ruling. At $29 - $59+ a pop -- and a life span of less than a year (of being able to hold a full charge)that equals some big cash.
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
NYC has a dedicated area code of 917 for cell phones... does this mean I can take the (very highly) coveted 212 number and go wireless with it?
-n-
You can get the same functionality out of most cellular services by just fowarding your calls from your cellular to your home phone. It is a complete guess, but I think that all the base station does is automaticly start/end your call forwarding service.
The grass is only greener, if you don't take care of your own lawn.
Pisses my off because of Cingular's crappy switch from TDMA to GSM has cost me at least one contract because of their network down time. It was less than 45 days at that point until number portablitiy was to take place, so I went to Alltel and they told me it will be at least May, if not next october. I heard that from other reps of other companies as well. So I broke my contract with Cingular anyway and went to Alltel.
"The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money" - Thatcher.
Half truth. I dropped my landline a couple years ago. Plug a phone into that jack, nothing. Have to have someone physically hook me back up. You are correct about the cell phone though.
so now when you call someone on their landline, you might have to pay more since it actually goes through to their cellphone/mobile/wireless?
Or you could just be like several of my friends and never get a land line, and just use a cell with unlimited minutes as your only phone. Saves bundles of money. The upside is that you can always be reached at that one number. The downside is that you can always be reached at that one number.
I hate sigs.
why SBC introduced that new service that, when your cell phone is in a special cradle, it will forward to your landline phone without a charge against your minutes.
Probably a way to divert attention or confuse the situation?
I could get something better than cable or dsl. I'd be more than happy to ditch my landline for a cell, but cable modems suck (plus they usually block port 80 which means I can't run my server), and DSL is really the only alternative for high speed internet.
-Cnik
If you are moving, port over your wireline number over to your cell phone before you move. This way you get to keep your old phone number even if you move outside the callign area. Of course: this means people in your new area will have to make a long distance call when they call you.
On a side note: The wireless industry expects 5-6 million numbers to be ported between Nov 24 and the end of the year.
Except that they only support a limited number of phones, and they're all old. I'd love to see a universal one...
to now call me on my cell phone? Since ditching my land line a year or so ago, I haven't received any telemarketing calls on my cell. Will this now allow them to do so?
Uh, Neo, hate to say this but...
"I only speak the truth"
Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
First VoIP...
::Wipe dripping sarcasm now and mod away::
Now number transfers to cell phones...
Now the CEO of Qwest can only buy ONE island in the Bahamas for Yuletide!!
1. Move landline to mobile ... (telemarketers)
2. Spread your phone number around (surveys etc)
3.
4. Profit!
Last.fm - join the social music revolution
The WLNP rules say you should be able to do that. The usual portability rules will apply.
Looks like someone forgot to mail their bribes^K^K^K^K^K^K^K campaign contributions last year...
Telecom companies HATE HATE HATE number portability because it makes it too easy to switch providers. I expect telecom companies to create barriers to switching in the form of cancellation service fees and minimum-term contracts.
If you plan to migrate, do it soon before the companies decide to make it expensive to dump them. Also, read any new service contract very carefully.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
If I lived in Philly, I wouldn't feel safe without a howitzer, an M-60, and booby-trapped windows. I'd wear kevlar to bed. I'd crouch-roll on the way to the bathroom.
But yeah, keeping a land-line is a good start.
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat
My experience is that different telecos will allow DSL (usually SDSL or IDSL) only on business accounts. Not "home" ADSL accounts. It can be done. I've seen it done. I have clients that have it. The telecos just don't want to give it to you with out you giving them more $$.
Who will guard the guards?
I'd imagine we'll see all kinds of obstacles, although fewer than the cell companies will be throwing up for cell portability. There was a newspaper article that said "expect lots of fees and potential equipment incompatibilities."
...I thought it said ditching your landmine
.......I need more coffee......
Hey, I realize the FCC is all-powerful and whatnot, but they certainly didn't approve a "bill". Leave that to our Congress, eh?
For me, it is even more significant that I can now change wireless companies without changing my number. That should be good for competition across wireless companies.
That was sarcasm right? You think a $250 cancellation fee and multiple year contracts aren't designed to prevent this?
"The disparity for the Bells lies in the fact that wireless local calling areas are generally much bigger than those of the Bells and may overlap several. So unless the wired phone and the wireless company's equipment are in the same Bell local area, a cell phone customer who switched a number to a wired phone could face toll charges to call next door."
Translation: the poor big telcos are sad because they can't get away with charging people an arm and a leg to call long distance anymore. Oh, wook, we made the widdle telco cry! In order to remain competitive they'll all be forced to switch to a fixed-rate nationwide calling model like virtually every wireless carrier in existence!
Jackasses. Telcos have been abusing their monopoly over the copper running into our homes for years, and fighting tooth-and-nail to maintain every scrap of their monopoly. They made a debacle of DSL, destroying its reputation simply because they didn't want to offer data service and couldn't stand to see other companies living inside their data centers and making money from their copper. Now, when the FCC enacts a progressive move such as number portability, they all start whining as if overcharging us for service were their privilege.
Becuase you live in springfield does not mean you cant have it.. I know for a fact that all of cingular's towers in your area are all backhauled to St Louis I believe. Wireless carriers are not like the telco with a switch in every town they're all in the major cities for the most part. We just lease loops to those places. All of which has no impact on the ability of Alltel of Cingular to provide E911 or WLNP to anyone in a remote area. If you're told so I'd bring it up with your local FCC office.
Boy this is fantastic news! I can't wait to pay even more special fees and surcharges for services I'll never use. I can understand paying for stuff like nationwide 911 service, but frankly I don't give a damn about number portability. Stop forcing me to pay for services I don't want and will never use. If I ever change my mind and decide I do want to move my number, charge me then. This is ridiculous.
sorry to interrupt your holier-than-thou-ness, but this indeed does work for the initial call.
granted, you need a Series 2 unit and a wired-Ethernet USB dongle (wireless would most likely work as well if the V4+ software is pre-loaded), but that's a fairly common setup for someone buying a new TiVo and planning to use a broadband connection for it.
perhaps the pharmacy has refilled your ritalin, I would give them a call.
I can still get political and "charity solicitation" calls that I'd have to pay for if they come to my cell. ...no thanks...
A goal is a dream with a deadline
NANPA
I know of a company that sells a device that allows a cell phone to be used as a land line and cell. It can be used at home or office in place of a land line. The device works and allows you to take advantage of both worlds. Business phone systems can be programmed to use it to make certain calls use the subject device instead of other lines for max cost effect.
It can be found here www.celegration.com .
Yes, that's great until the telemarketers (*ahem* I mean, non-profit charity recordings..) start calling your wireless service because it used to be your landline.
No one can call collect to my cell phone. This rules out emergency calls. Say you get falsely arrested and need to make a collect call from jail. If you try to call someone from jail and they only had a cell number you would be out of luck.
The media has never discussed this part. Is the old teleco going to be able to charge me for use of this number after I move to the new teleco? I ask this because many telecos offered pseudo number portability by offering call forwarding, for a monthly fee on top of new teleco's bill.
At least, since countries like mine prefix cell phones differently than city codes. There are mostly 4 cell phone companies and all numbers start with 041x x being in [2,4,6,8]
Open Source Java Web Forum with LDAP authentication
Verisign also handles wiretapping. If your phone is being wiretapped, Verisign reroutes all your calls (in and out) to a wiretapping center by altering the routing database. From the wiretapping center, the call is then routed to the destination. This allows both interception and, potentially, man-in-the-middle crypto attacks.
I don't recall saying it was a common problem; just a known weakness of land-line alarms, particularly for professionals (who are admittedly few... most burglaries are youths, or people looking for a quick score for some drug money). That said, you'd hate to be that one person frantically dialing for help, with the awful realization that you didn't have a backup plan.
As with many things, it pays to have a backup. Better to have it and not need it than vise-versa
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
I can switch my land-line from the evil that is Verizon and move my number to my Verizon..wireless..phone... Er, um, wha?
TODO: Insert witty sig
Currently the majority of telemarketing companies don't call cell phone exchanges. If you put a land line number on your cell phone EXPECT to get telemarketing calls on it because they will no longer be able to filter your number by exchange.
Only the top 100 markets will be able to port on November 24th. Everyone else won't get to port till May 2004
I work for a vendor who is outsourced from a carrier whose ranked near the bottom, so we are going to lose a lot of customers. We are geared up for number portability. Remember the word 'port'. PORT is the magic word. Use it every chance you get. Do not cancel your old service until you are ported to the new service. Or you are SCREWED! Anyway, you can take your landline to to wireless or wireless to landline or wireless to wireless.
Retirees in Wisconsin can move their landline to a cell phone and move to Arizona. The downside is any local callers in AZ will be long distance but friends in WI will be local. And w/ LD included your calls are local.
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
Read the fine USA Today article.
IIRC, it's illegal (in the US) for a telemarketer to knowingly call a mobile phone.
Unless they plan on banning telemarketing altogether, which would make me extremely happy, this is one of the biggest bonehead ideas I've ever heard.
Ok, good tool and all, correct? Well I am of the impression that these devices should be restricted. No unlimited minute plans would be a good start for those of non-commercial usage. I am sick and tired of having some two bit bimbo jabbering on a cell phone and watching them nearly slam into me, sway on the road, or drive like a bat out of hell. I say either take away unlimited minutes to restrict their over usage or make it criminal to talk with them while driving.
Telemarketing that cost every time I get it, land lines work when power failed cell phones did not, cutting off telphone communication just got that much easier. Will wireless ever be as reliable as a physical line?
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
Another proposal in front of the FCC is to allow someone to take his/her phone Number from New York to California. It has either been approved and waiting for implementation, or will be approved soon (assuming the telco's don't bribe the FCC).
Many thanks to the funny candy company for making this all possible.
This sig no verb.
>Yes.
;)
> NANPA
Thank you! (What do you know... an informative AC post.
http://www.cingular.com/beyond_voice/fastforward
:)
I think it's most useful for those who spend a lot of time at home during the day from time to time. They just put their cellphone on it, then they receive cell calls through their home line while their cellphone charges. It supports 3 devices so that others can use it if you don't happen to be home. Of course, if you spend a lot of time at home, you should probably just have them call you on your home number to begin with
I wonder if this will bring along with it another tax on everyone's phone bill. This sounds similiar to the Local Number Portability charge.
When did that happen? :) I live in metro ATL and I didn't know that!
I knew this would happen here today.
"Landline will save your life." "Wireless will save your life." "No, landline is better." "Wireless is newer."
The truth is, neither is better. They both have their advantages and disadvantages.
The real issue here is that the FCC clearly favored wireless by allowing number transportability from landline to wireless, and not in reverse.
I know plenty of small business owners that started businesses with a single wireless phone, and have grown into a traditional office space with the need for landlines. They'd have been much happier if they could have moved that number from wireless to landline. It doesn't mean that these businesses would lose their wireless phones. It means that it wouldn't have been as painful to move to a landline in an office environment.
The FCC did not consider this. They only heard the complaints of the wireless companies. In fact, this ruling clearly plays favorites with the wireless companies. The land line companies will soon be putting lawyers in court rooms to have number portability work in 2 directions.
-- No sig for you!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Ditching the land line?
Have you been drinking or sniffing flour?
I can see it now, online for 12hrs
a day for the next month
$4000 to $8000 phone bill to be
on the internet on the cellular
while it's less than $30 for the
regular land line.
I will be exspecting to see a new $1.20 fee on my phone bill this month labled something like "wireless portability fee" or maybe they will just roll up one of those other number portability fees.
That was sarcasm right?
Yes and no. I suspect that with this FCC ruling, the service terms will get even worse than they are now (you are totally right about them being bad). Prior to the ruling telcos could rely on both number non-portability and onerous service terms to keep customers. Now they will only have service terms and those terms will get worse.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
Don't just assume they're being pig-headed. It may be that your telco does not have sufficiently advanced technology to accomplish the DSL-without-a-dial-tone magic. They may even be unaware that such a thing is possible.
What I want is to be able to receive a cell signal in my basement apartment. When they finally fix that, maybe I'll drop my land line.
"I'm not impatient. I just hate waiting." - My Dad
Does this mean we can eliminate that retarded law that says banks can't accept a cell phone line on an account application? This law was written as part of our absurd War on Some Drugs, and is just another example of the government getting carried away with "protecting" us by taking away our rights.
It's rare that you're presented with a knob whose only two positions are Make History and Flee Your Glorious Destiny.
I use both wired and wireless phones. I *love* my wireless, mainly because it's *my* phone and it knows what I do and how I like to do it. (Sanyo with speakerphone, gotta love it when your hands are on the keyboard and no headset is handy).
:-)
But a landline allows...
- The receipt of faxes. My cellphone voicemail has fax capability, so you can fax my cellphone (separate number), but to see the fax I have to forward it to a fax machine somewhere. If the faxes could be e-mailed to me (or forwarded to e-mail when I choose), then this would be taken care of. (Yeah, those Nokias communicators have this one licked - the fax can be viewed on the screen).
- Multiple extensions. You can answer a call on any extension, you can talk at the same time on any extension, and you can 'transfer' a call by picking up a second extension and then hanging up the first extension.
So that raises the questions...
[a] Why can't I have a separate family phone number that rings my cellphone AND my wife's cellphone at the same time, and whoever answers first gets the call? Even if this was *sequential* it would be OK (if I don't answer, the call goes to my wife's phone).
[b] 3-way calling is clunky. I should be able to bring another family member and/or business partner into a call easily and quickly.
[c] I should be able to transfer a call-in-progress to another wireless 'extension' easily and quickly.
Perhaps these services could be bundled into a 'family line' or 'office line' service offering (same thing, two markets) -- this could be quite attractive to many customers (I'd gladly pay!
--
Chris Tyler (who can't remember his password at the moment and is too lazy to find it out, therefore is currently an AC).
Maybe. But remember it is a contract. One can accept it, or they can walk away. Make it too onerous and people will walk away. The plus side is maybe people will, and we'll have less cell phones to annoy and endanger us.
I use Sprint PCS and for the last few months (as many of know) Sprint (and the other phone companies) have been charging a $1.10 portability fee. BTW when I called the customer service line and asked what the fee was for I was told it was a tax and told to call the "tax people".
Anyway, you are being charged this fee even if you don't plan on moving to another service. Now compare the number of people with land lines to the number of people with cell phones. Now imagine that your a Phone executive looking to bost the bottom line. Answer just charge the fee to everyone with a landline. Land line number poratability is nothing more than a landline surchage.
I have no
This may be crazy, but wouldn't this be a breech of personal security? Phone taps on land lines have to go through various levels of red tape. There wouldn't be anything to stop someone with a receiver that can dial into cell phone frequencies and you'd never know it. There is the other factor that it would make it easier to track your movements via the "all seeing eye in the sky" that the various intelligence agencies are gunning for. I don't know about ya'll, but the idea of being tracked and monitored doesn't bode well with me. Face recog software, chips implated for various "medical" reasons, OnStar! and a host of various other devices with benign uses have the potential for VERY sinister means. I don't trust the government in it's current state. Any thoughts?
the biggest loss would be multiple extensions for the same line. Can cell phones do this? One number for multiple cell phones? If not, this would suck for couples and families sharing a phone.
This would go from a software change at the local level to a software change required across nearly all industries.
Too many are trapped into the geographical thinking about area codes. Look at all the business systems that are setup based on area code. When the system was changed to permit digits other than 1 and 0 as the second portion of an area code there were many ramifications outside of the telephone industry.
Another concern, long distance interstate is separate from long distrance intrastate, or intra exchange.
What we really need is for the FTC to set down a new standard declaring that the area code is no longer geographically based. From that we can then end up with numbers unique to people and have true telco freedom.
Of course the side concern is that with one number anti-spam laws will need to be really strong and they will have to include stopping politicians and charities from calling too.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
My backup plan is know[n] as the 'kick the fucker's ass plan'. The backup backup plan is known as the 'Twelve guage [sic] shotty to the head plan'...
Use birdshot for indoors. Larger pellets likely will go through walls, endangering other inhabitants of the same house, or apartment building, depending on what's in the inner walls (often empty space or fluffy insulation). At close range, a accurately-placed full load of birdshot should still stop a dangerous attacker quite well.
Also, none of this chancy "head-shot" stuff. The torso is a larger, more reliable target, particularly the heart or pelvis areas. Heads dodge around amazingly. The point is to halt a violent attack and the danger it represents to you or to your family's life and safety, not to try specifically to kill the attacker in Hollywood-style dramatics.
A truly excellent pizza parlor is a delight unto the heavens. Treasure the sauce and the toppings!
In Vancouver anyway, one of the local wireless companies applied to be a local carrier. Now Fido can offer service with your old phone number, the telco has to print your number in the phone book, and other such perks of being a CLEC. They charge $40 a month for unlimited local calling (with a much bigger local calling area than the telco) and a bunch of services (call waiting, call forwarding, etc.) included. It's aimed mostly at young urban or business types who are out more than they're home.
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- $40/month (about $30 US)
- unlimited local calling within the city
- nationwide long distance 10 cents/minute (about 7 cents US)
- includes call forwarding, call waiting, 3-way calling
The downside to that is if you cancel your landline service and use this, you have to talk on a tiny cell phone instead of a regular handset. How hard would it be to rig up a jack which fits into the headset slot and allows you to use a handset on your cell phone?Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
Blurring the distinction between wireless and wireline phones does have some drawbacks.
Most modern alarm systems are periodically (every few minutes) 'interrogated' by the security company computers. If the computers at the security company are unable to reach the residential system the company will usually immediately call the residence; if can't get anyone they alert the police. If the residential system doesn't receive its periodic blip from home base it goes off.
Yes, you can spoof the signal in both directions, but now you're getting into a mission-impossible fantasy.
I live in LA, mf'er. And I'm smart enough to stay out of places like Compton. And Philly.
"Just because you're paranoid, don't mean I'm not after you" -Terretorial Pissings (Nevermind)
someone who has all the facts
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
Wow nice argument.. yah what a bunch of cock suckers.... I AGREE but THE POINT is that this will result in lots more calls to cell phones. It doesnt matter if it's because they suck and should die horribly, because that does NOT change the fact that we WILL be getting more phone calls to the cellss, because they can use this argument.
In conclusion, please die.
Joseph?
More like the troll wakes up and pulls a long nasty knife out of his shabby clothes. He points the knife in your direction as he hisses, "Gold! Give me your gold!" The cyclops spits out a horrible assortment of syllables that you barely decipher as a demand for all your valuables. Am I right?
How are people going to know they are calling the mobile phone? I thought there was going to be a move to Calling Party Pays (like everywhere else in the world) and this will make it impossible.
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no sig for you. come back one year.
Microcell with the Fido brand name has launched this service in Vancouver, Canada last month. http://cityfido.ca