Traditional landlines axed by 2025 as all UK phone calls go digital

[Knute]

I have POTS, through centurylink. Installed in 2010, no VOIP for me. So there are still some out there.

I had to dig a bit deeper, and I'm not what they call "an expert," and of course things on the Internet are always "true," but wiki seems to support my assertion that "POTS" as we knew it died in this country sometime after 1988.

If you have a twisted-pair phone line and telco service to your home, it is by definition not "POTS," at least in the United States. But, never say never…

They call the old POTS acronym a "retronym" which is a new word for me

"Plain old telephone service (POTS), or plain ordinary telephone system,[1] is a retronym for voice-grade telephone service employing analog signal transmission over copper loops. POTS was the standard service offering from telephone companies from 1876 until 1988[2] in the United States when the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) Basic Rate Interface (BRI) was introduced, followed by cellular telephone systems, and voice over IP (VoIP). POTS remains the basic form of residential and small business service connection to the telephone network in many parts of the world. The term reflects the technology that has been available since the introduction of the public telephone system in the late 19th century, in a form mostly unchanged despite the introduction of Touch-Tone dialing, electronic telephone exchanges and fiber-optic communication into the public switched telephone network (PSTN)."

 

[tdawg]

I had to dig a bit deeper, and I'm not what they call "an expert," and of course things on the Internet are always "true," but wiki seems to support my assertion that "POTS" as we knew it died in this country sometime after 1988.

If you have a twisted-pair phone line and telco service to your home, it is by definition not "POTS," at least in the United States. But, never say never…

They call the old POTS acronym a "retronym" which is a new word for me

"Plain old telephone service (POTS), or plain ordinary telephone system,[1] is a retronym for voice-grade telephone service employing analog signal transmission over copper loops. POTS was the standard service offering from telephone companies from 1876 until 1988[2] in the United States when the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) Basic Rate Interface (BRI) was introduced, followed by cellular telephone systems, and voice over IP (VoIP). POTS remains the basic form of residential and small business service connection to the telephone network in many parts of the world. The term reflects the technology that has been available since the introduction of the public telephone system in the late 19th century, in a form mostly unchanged despite the introduction of Touch-Tone dialing, electronic telephone exchanges and fiber-optic communication into the public switched telephone network (PSTN)."

Color me educated now. Today I learned all that

 

[Tony617]

I still have a POTS line in my home and it came in handy when our local cell tower was out of service for a while. We have had one instance where both the POTS line and cell tower were down.

 

[titsonritz]

Unless something has changed recently, I can say there is no shortage of fiber optic work going on.

 

[Provincial]

I was travelling at the time, but during the ice storm last winter my kids reported that the POTS landline did not work. We have two direct-wired telephones (one a base station for a cordless system and the other a simple desk phone that I keep for emergency back-up) and neither would get dial tone.

I am assuming that Centurylink has put equipment in the line that relies on commercial power and doe not have a back-up power supply. In that case, our POTS loses a main reason for being.

We live in a canyon and cannot get cell reception. We use a base station that connects the cell call through the DSL landline. We expect that to be inoperative in a power-out situation.

Oh, well, we have gravity-fed water and a wood stove. I modified a portable light tower to tap the diesel generator for 6KW of 120/240V power, and the kids ran it twice a day to charge up batteries and keep the fridges and freezers cold. It made the episode an adventure instead of an inconvenience.

 

[Caveman Jim]

Blue orange green brown slate
white red black yellow violet

 

[gmerkt]

One of my pals from my working days still has wired landline service. He doesn't "do" computers or cable TV. He's one of the very few on his block to yet have it. Whatever carrier that assumed the legacy for this service had to come out to repair it a couple of years ago. The wire from the pole into his house was corroded. The tech was telling him he was the only one nearby getting the service and that the lines were in pretty bad shape.

 

[Provincial]

My sister-in-law is at the end of a remote road. Her phone line is in bad shape, and Centurylink refuses to repair it because "it does not serve any customer except you." They have poor/unreliable cell service, so the land line is important.

Oregon has a bureaucracy that is supposed to make telephone companies provide the service that they charge for. It is called the Public Utilities Commission, or PUC. I call it the Practically Useless Commission.

 

[Provincial]

Blue orange green brown slate
white red black yellow violet

Sung to the tune of "The Streets of Laredo":
Since you call Gray Slate, I see you're a Phone Man
Since I call Gray Slate, I am a Phone Man too,
Since we call Gray Slate, then we are both Phone Men
If you call Gray Slate, you can be a Phone Man too!

I used to sing this ditty to cable splicers. They hated it!

 

[ma96782]

And.....for the phone challenged here.....

Aloha, Mark

 

[Certaindeaf]

And.....for the phone challenged here.....

Aloha, Mark

 

[RicInOR]

Not for nothin' if you need a phone number for rewards programs like at Safeway, enter your area code + Jennie's

 

[ma96782]

An offer I couldn't refuse (with the girl NOT the guy). And, I still have both of my kidneys.



Aloha, Mark

 

[ma96782]

Yeah.....now a days it's.....
What's a pay phone?

Aloha, Mark

 

[ma96782]

In my father's day it was.......

Aloha, Mark

 

[titsonritz]

I had to click.

 

[Tony617]

In my father's day it was.......

Aloha, Mark

I played, "In The Mood" in jazz band in high school.

 

[Caveman Jim]

I was travelling at the time, but during the ice storm last winter my kids reported that the POTS landline did not work. We have two direct-wired telephones (one a base station for a cordless system and the other a simple desk phone that I keep for emergency back-up) and neither would get dial tone.

I am assuming that Centurylink has put equipment in the line that relies on commercial power and doe not have a back-up power supply. In that case, our POTS loses a main reason for being.

We live in a canyon and cannot get cell reception. We use a base station that connects the cell call through the DSL landline. We expect that to be inoperative in a power-out situation.

Oh, well, we have gravity-fed water and a wood stove. I modified a portable light tower to tap the diesel generator for 6KW of 120/240V power, and the kids ran it twice a day to charge up batteries and keep the fridges and freezers cold. It made the episode an adventure instead of an inconvenience.

I'd be willing to bet that there was a short or break in the line of some sort because generally the "remotes" will remain more than 8 hours with no AC power.
When I worked for the phone company we had many storms and there were all kinds of different types of outages. Whether it was aerial drops downed by limbs or trees, floods to remotes that were previously being powered by generators were generator-less due to thieves…

 

[Caveman Jim]

I know what you meant, however POTS lines require power. Throw a meter on one and it's at 48v. CO (Central office) switching locations are relay racks and batteries. Really big batteries the size of fish tanks all looped together by massive buss bars.

48-52v DC

 

[Provincial]

Troubleshooting tip:

Because the phone operates on DC current, it does not work when the polarity is reversed. If you listen to the earpiece when you "lift the receiver" and it tries to make the connection, you should get a click and then the dial tone. If no click or dial tone, you probably have a broken wire, or the system is down. If you get a click, but no dial tone, the polarity has been reversed, probably by an improper connection somewhere in the system.