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Louisiana Towns Going High-Tech

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the rated-c-for-can-you-hear-me-now dept.

wolverineinspector writes "Mink, LA is finally getting telephone land lines after the neighbouring communities got theirs in 1970. In the article they also say that as many as 6.2% of US homes don't have phone service - that would mean that 19 million Americans don't have wired phone lines available to them."

24 of 331 comments (clear)

  1. Just because 6.2% don't have phones by WilliamsDA · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Just because 6.2% of people don't have wired phones doesn't mean that the service isn't available to them. A lot of people ditch their wired lines and just use their cell phone.

    1. Re:Just because 6.2% don't have phones by TykeClone · · Score: 5, Interesting
      I was at a meeting this fall and one of the speakers was talking about how the Amish use technology. I thought we'd find out about those cutting edge things like blacksmithing and such, but it wasn't quite that. Apparently, as long as the technology doesn't get in the way of their religious life, it's ok.

      Land line telephones = bad; cell phones (or telephones kept "out of the house") = good.

      Utility power = bad; small portable generators = good

      Computers = bad; Palm Pilots/Pocket PCs = good (no word on the Zaurus though - maybe that just gets you into Purgatory)

      John Deere = bad; draft horses = good (and with that they're able to make a larger profit per acre farming than the typical farm in the country).

      There's probably something to learn from them about not letting technology drive your life, but I don't have time to think about that now - back to Slashdot!

      --
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    2. Re:Just because 6.2% don't have phones by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 3, Funny

      Well of course they would need to have phones. How else would they be able to coordinate with their offshore quilt suppliers?

  2. Re:welcome to teh 20th century by drxray · · Score: 3, Funny

    Their first call:

    "Hi. Got Skype?"

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  3. why bother when there are cell phones? by jxyama · · Score: 3, Interesting
    if you look on the map, Mink, LA is ~15 miles off I-49, which is a major highway between two of the larger Lousiana cities: Shreveport and Baton Rouge.

    surely they have cell phone signals there... why bother with a land line? how are they going to recuperate the capital cost?

    1. Re:why bother when there are cell phones? by nxtr · · Score: 5, Informative

      If you had read the article, you would've realized that they went to the town dump to make a call, because they got the best reception there.

  4. Re:and by PoopJuggler · · Score: 5, Funny

    It also means that 6.2% of Americans aren't getting gouged or ripped-off by the telcos.

  5. Most people I know dont have phone lines. by blanks · · Score: 3, Insightful

    " 6.2% of US homes don't have phone service "
    Does this include the number of people who have cellphones that dont want a land line.

    Or how about the people that just dont want a land line. Or get digital phone service from their cable provider.

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  6. Telephones just now, eh? by nxtr · · Score: 4, Funny

    So much for Canada being the great white north.

  7. Don't forget the Amish by UpLateDrinkingCoffee · · Score: 4, Funny
    In the article they also say that as many as 6.2% of US homes don't have phone service - that would mean that 19 million Americans don't have wired phone lines available to them."
    Maybe some people just don't want a telephone, like the Amish. They certainly don't account for 6.2% of U.S. homes, but I'll bet it's a factor.
    1. Re:Don't forget the Amish by deathazre · · Score: 5, Funny

      the hell, the amish have a website?

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  8. It said phones "of some kind" by Moonpie+Madness · · Score: 3, Informative

    probably meaning land or cell.

  9. I didn't either... by LinuxInDallas · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I didn't have a land line either until I finally bought a house. Now the only reason I have it is because it's required for the security system. What a waste, every call on the land line is a telemarketer...about 6-10 a day.

    1. Re:I didn't either... by jschottm · · Score: 4, Funny

      What a waste, every call on the land line is a telemarketer...about 6-10 a day.

      At the very least, use it for some fun. Just get an answering machine without a ringer. Here's some ideas to get you started:

      1. Record the little error tone that the phone company uses and get a woman to do a really pinched voice, "The number you have called, 555-1234, has been changed. The new number is 555-1234. Please note this change."

      2. Get someone to do the voice of an elderly person, "Hello? Hello? You're goana have to speak up sonny, I'm a little hard of hearing. What? You're calling from who?" It helps if you can get a really long recording time.

      3. I'm going to assume from your username that you're down in Texas. Just record something really unpleasant happening on a farm to a cow.

      4. Fax handshake. For added style points, record a message and record a 300 baud modem sending it in plaintext ala Information Society.

      5. Amusing excerpts - for a while I had bits of Deliverence or the introduction to Jesus Built My Hotrod as my message.

      6. Same concept as 2, but get an actual little kid. "No, Daddy doesn't want to talk to you. I have blocks. I like them. I make..."

      At the end of the month, play back the messages and see if you got any amusing responses. It would be more amusing to hack up a Linux telephony box so you could record their responses as the message plays, but that might be a little too much effort.

  10. Demand - Supply by FuturePastNow · · Score: 3, Informative

    My mother lives way out in the country, and the local telco quoted her an obscene price to run a landline to the house. Unfortunately, she lives too far from the highway to get decent cellphone coverage. She ended up having to pay it.

    I have to believe, though, that if the people of Mink, LA really wanted phone coverage some company would have wanted to sell it to them. I guess it wasn't worth it, until now, for just fifteen homes.

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  11. Rural Telecommunications Acts by green+pizza · · Score: 5, Informative

    In the USA, there are Rural Telecommunication (and electrification) Acts. I'm not sure about new construction, but I know that in rural Texas if you have an old isolated homestead in need of telephone service, you can call up the nearest telco and they'll string out lines no matter what it costs. It all gets paid for by federal grants.

    The only catch is the telco territory boundries. Sometimes two telcos will bicker over who gets to (or who has to) string the lines. A vist to your state's public services commissioner will get things moving though.

  12. What the hell? by evilviper · · Score: 3, Funny
    No matter how many times I read it, I have no clue what the hell this paragraph in the story is supposed to mean:

    The analog service, which is being phased out here, also lacks features like voice mail. So people like Ray, who sells fire-extinguishing systems for Firetrace International in the Southeast, can sometimes be found at the local Dumpster in a clearing, shouting into his digital cell phone: "How is the signal? HOW IS THE SIGNAL?"


    Whaaaaaa?
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  13. Huh? by dghcasp · · Score: 4, Interesting
    a survey released in October found that 93.8 percent of American households had telephones of some sort. More households had televisions--98.2 percent, according to Nielsen Media Research-NTI.

    Consider that Nielson would probably have done telephone surveys to determine these statistics, how exactly do they calculate how many people don't have phones?

    "Hey, call Floyd and ask if he's got a phone!"
    Who's Floyd? What's his number?
    I don't know, but there must be a Floyd. Hmm, not in the white pages, so he must not have a phone
    So don't call him, but when you call him, ask him if he has a T.V.

    Can you say Reductio ad absurdum kids? I knew you could!

    1. Re:Huh? by imthesponge · · Score: 3, Informative
      http://216.239.63.104/search?q=cache:-AAPfXFzjjEJ: www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/Reports/FCC-Sta te_Link/IAD/subs0704.pdf&hl=en (google cache)

      They use the Census.

      "Recognizing the need for more precise periodic measurements of subscribership, the Commission requested that the Census Bureau include questions on telephone availability as part of its CPS, which monitors demographic trends between the decennial censuses."

  14. WTF by AndyChrist · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What the fuck have we been paying that universal service fee for?

  15. Huh? Dont tell me... by Creepy+Crawler · · Score: 3, Funny

    ---The Federal Communications Commission does not keep track of places without phone service, but a survey released in October found that 93.8 percent of American households had telephones of some sort

    Was it a PHONE survey? Please dont say it so..

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  16. Re:and by SoSueMe · · Score: 3, Funny

    That means 19 million Americans don't have to sign up for the "Do Not Call" list.

  17. Boy... we may be behind here in louisiana... but.. by bmooney28 · · Score: 3, Funny

    slashdot missed this story by the better part of a week ;) (check the date on it!)

  18. Re:Reasons why people don't have phone service by Radical+Rad · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The reason I don't have a phone is that when I built my house, the regional bell would not hook up a new phone service unless I provided them with copies of 2 of the following 3 documents: drivers license, social security card, birth certificate. I explained to them that the grocer and gas station and numerous other businesses don't demand to keep my personal information on file in order to allow me to buy from them. The woman I was talking to informed me that if I wanted a phone I didn't have a choice in the matter. I begged her pardon but I do have a choice. Bye bye Ameritech. You've lost a customer for life. I found I am much happier without a phone anyway. In the year and a half since then I have not had one telemarketing call disturb my dinner or television shows and I have other things I can spend $30 a month on like high speed internet access.