4 ms·

That's no longer true in California, unfortunately. It was a really nice feature for disconnected land lines, but the industry had the law changed. http://www

by ipsin 11y ago

That's no longer true in California, unfortunately. It was a really nice feature for disconnected land lines, but the industry had the law changed. http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/Telco/Consumer+Information/Changes+in+Calling+9-1-1+from+a+Traditional+Landline.htm http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/Telco/Consumer+Information/Change...

BEEdwards 11y ago
Am I wrong or does that really seem like as much of a mustache twirlingly evil thing to do as I think? Can't have those poors making emergency medical calls until they pay what they owe.
- eli_gottlieb 11y ago
  You think they actually bothered to hold a conscious image in their mind of the consequence of their actions, rather than just reasoning from "it costs us money" to "let's have our bought-and-paid-for legislators get rid of it"?
  - ipsin 11y ago
    Yeah, I'm imagining that the conversations were Entirely Reasonable. Something like, "the world is changing, people are moving off land-lines, and we can't be expected to maintain dead lines in perpetuity". The disgusting thing is, after this passed, the rates jumped about 50%. I was willing to pay under $20/month for land line service, but paying almost $30/month (for metered access, even for local calls!) was just too much. http://articles.latimes.com/2013/feb/12/business/la-fi-lazarus-20130212 http://articles.latimes.com/2013/feb/12/business/la-fi-lazar... "Since 2011, the California Public Utilities Commission has allowed phone companies to raise -- or lower -- basic phone rates whenever they choose, rather than seek approval from regulators. Since then, costs have steadily gone up." This, and the fact that the state now controls cable TV franchises, have left me pretty disillusioned with California government.
- jcrawfordor 11y ago
  For analog phone service, there must be a physical pair of wires running from the nearest switch to your house. As you can imagine, this can be expensive to maintain. Because more and more households are simply going without landlines, it no longer makes economic sense to have as many pairs going out as houses, and so providers want the ability to reassign wiring to houses that actually have service connected (this can be done at a local cabinet, in many areas you will see these by the street from time to time). So the reasons that some houses may no longer have even 911 service is because their physical wiring has been disconnected. This requires sending out a technician, so it's only done if there's a reason, usually that another house's line has failed and they want to use the known good one for that house. It's not the providers being evil - it's them not wanting to have to maintain a huge amount of physical infrastructure for subscribers that don't exist and, per the trend, will never exist again.

by ipsin 11y ago

BEEdwards 11y ago

Am I wrong or does that really seem like as much of a mustache twirlingly evil thing to do as I think? Can't have those poors making emergency medical calls until they pay what they owe.

eli_gottlieb 11y ago
You think they actually bothered to hold a conscious image in their mind of the consequence of their actions, rather than just reasoning from "it costs us money" to "let's have our bought-and-paid-for legislators get rid of it"?
- ipsin 11y ago
  Yeah, I'm imagining that the conversations were Entirely Reasonable. Something like, "the world is changing, people are moving off land-lines, and we can't be expected to maintain dead lines in perpetuity". The disgusting thing is, after this passed, the rates jumped about 50%. I was willing to pay under $20/month for land line service, but paying almost $30/month (for metered access, even for local calls!) was just too much. http://articles.latimes.com/2013/feb/12/business/la-fi-lazarus-20130212 http://articles.latimes.com/2013/feb/12/business/la-fi-lazar... "Since 2011, the California Public Utilities Commission has allowed phone companies to raise -- or lower -- basic phone rates whenever they choose, rather than seek approval from regulators. Since then, costs have steadily gone up." This, and the fact that the state now controls cable TV franchises, have left me pretty disillusioned with California government.
jcrawfordor 11y ago
For analog phone service, there must be a physical pair of wires running from the nearest switch to your house. As you can imagine, this can be expensive to maintain. Because more and more households are simply going without landlines, it no longer makes economic sense to have as many pairs going out as houses, and so providers want the ability to reassign wiring to houses that actually have service connected (this can be done at a local cabinet, in many areas you will see these by the street from time to time). So the reasons that some houses may no longer have even 911 service is because their physical wiring has been disconnected. This requires sending out a technician, so it's only done if there's a reason, usually that another house's line has failed and they want to use the known good one for that house. It's not the providers being evil - it's them not wanting to have to maintain a huge amount of physical infrastructure for subscribers that don't exist and, per the trend, will never exist again.