End of the Landline: BT Aims To Move All UK Customers To VoIP by 2025 (siliconrepublic.com)

BT aims to move its UK customers to IP telephony by 2025. From a report: BT is shutting its traditional telephone network in the UK, according to an email seen by The Register. The public switched telephone network (PSTN) closure is part of the company's plans to move in a fibre network direction in terms of its infrastructure. All phone calls will eventually be made over broadband using VoIP systems, which means the company's existing wholesale line rental products, which are reliant on the PSTN, will need to be removed. BT Openreach runs the network used by all but one of the telecoms providers in the UK.

Comments

Sucks if you have no power

[rsilvergun]

Landlines work in a lot of cases where the power's down, at least in the States. Not sure about UK.

Re:Sucks if you have no power

[MightyYar]

In our case, we opted to have fiber rather than a copper landline (Verizon Fios) - so aside from a small backup battery there is no phone service during a power outage. Over the last 10 years, I've found our cell phone service to be 100% reliable during power outages - including extended outages due to disasters like Sandy and Irene. Cell phones are easy to charge via power packs, generators, or car chargers. Our alarm system uses a cell phone backup, and it has worked in every power outage (I know because my alarm company calls when the power goes out).

So I think this particular advantage is overblown.

Re:Sucks if you have no power

[jellomizer]

That is assuming you still have a direct wired phone.
Most people who still have a LAN Line, often will just have a cordless phone. Which doesn't work with the power out anyways.

I remember watching a friends child play with Doll house parts. There was a toy telephone (from the 1990's) her parents coudln't convince her that it was actually a telephone and not an iron.

good bye

[mapkinase]

high quality audio conversations

Re:good bye

[bigfinger76]

We still have a landline, and the quality is invariably better than my cellphone or the VOIP at work. Plant quality varies.

Legal implications?

[Harvey Manfrenjenson]

I know this story is about the UK, but clearly the US telecoms are moving to VOIP as well, and I wonder about the legal implications. If phone service is now considered an "online service", does the FOSTA/SESTA legislation apply to it? Will telecoms be required to monitor the content of phone calls in order to make sure that no one is committing a crime? How will this affect the ease with which LEOs can monitor or record your phone calls?

Collect Calls

[FuzzyFox]

Land lines can accept Collect Calls. Where the person calling you might be stuck in a situation where they are far away, and can't afford to pay for a call (such as a pay phone, stuck in a prison, in jail for some reason). They can ask the operator to reverse the charges, so that you, the one receiving the call, can talk to that person.

VOIP phones don't have the billing infrastructure and laws/regulations that require they have this ability. As a result, loss of land lines means less and less ability for a family member to be able to reach you in an unexpectedly harsh emergency.

The only reason I still have a land line is because this happened to me. A family member ended up in jail, and the only way that they were able to call and let me know was because I had a land line. If I hadn't had one, I suppose I would have found out... eventually? Somehow? It's hard to say.

I really feel like we're losing something, and not many people are giving serious thought to this particular service, because it's so rarely used, and hard to predict what conditions would have to happen for it to be useful.