80% of the non-last mile copper is already gone. All inter-office or long distance communications allready uses fiber. Neighborhood boxes already exist and are in place today in most areas. These boxes are normally fed by fiber. They are what feed the DSL and cable for your area. In many cases the only part that is copper is the wiring from that neighborhood box, to the phone jack in your house.
First off, the Telco's own almost the entire backbone that VOIP, and your Internet connection and cell phone run over. Many of the Telco's offer VOIP, such as Qwest, and they are planning on increasing their VOIP subscribers in the near future. I don't think that many of the people posting on here have any idea how large and developed the "land line" or wired network is. This network will continue to evolve but its not going anywhere. The Bells are the only companies that realistically have the infrastructure and money to maintain this required network. Cell phones and wireless subscribers will continue to grow but POTS, SS7, and ISDN will remain, in part, due to their reliability. It wont matter what technology the future holds, it will be wired to the network at some point. Your cell phone, VOIP, wireless, and fiber networks are all linked to the backbone that the Bells own. They arn't going anywhere, ya might as well get used to it.
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80% of the non-last mile copper is already gone. All inter-office or long distance communications allready uses fiber. Neighborhood boxes already exist and are in place today in most areas. These boxes are normally fed by fiber. They are what feed the DSL and cable for your area. In many cases the only part that is copper is the wiring from that neighborhood box, to the phone jack in your house.
First off, the Telco's own almost the entire backbone that VOIP, and your Internet connection and cell phone run over. Many of the Telco's offer VOIP, such as Qwest, and they are planning on increasing their VOIP subscribers in the near future. I don't think that many of the people posting on here have any idea how large and developed the "land line" or wired network is. This network will continue to evolve but its not going anywhere. The Bells are the only companies that realistically have the infrastructure and money to maintain this required network. Cell phones and wireless subscribers will continue to grow but POTS, SS7, and ISDN will remain, in part, due to their reliability. It wont matter what technology the future holds, it will be wired to the network at some point. Your cell phone, VOIP, wireless, and fiber networks are all linked to the backbone that the Bells own. They arn't going anywhere, ya might as well get used to it.