01-30-2014, 06:05 PM
freeradical wrote:
This doesn't make sense to me. What "wire" will they use to deliver their services to the last mile? Will they just be providing a service on someone else's wire? The reason that many people still have their POTs is that it's about as close to 100% reliable as it gets since the phone company provides power over that local loop. With a VOIP model, people would need to have a UPS to ensure phone service during a power outage. Once people realize that their phone service with the phone company no longer offers pretty much guaranteed service, what's to stop them from defecting to some other VOIP provider?
Looks like they're planning on using the Wireless "wire". I'm in an area where they can't support DSL on their wires, and their wireless reception is poor, we have their cell phone service because we mainly use our cell phones when we're away from the house where reception is good.
Ultimately, AT&T wants to move everything to IP and stop maintaining the PSTN by roughly 2020. In some areas where wired infrastructure is difficult to maintain, AT&T wants to deploy wireless-only services. The company did not provide any comment to Ars in advance of today's vote.
The type of technology used would be up to the carrier. In rural areas where it's expensive to wire up every home, carriers might try to shift everyone to wireless service. AT&T has said that in 25 percent of its customer locations, "it's currently not economically feasible to build a competitive IP wireline network," so it would use 4G LTE instead "to offer voice and high-speed IP Internet services."
There will be concerns about reliability of wireless services, particularly during power outages, but the FCC official said Wheeler isn't reflexively for or against wireless as a replacement for the PSTN.