4 ms·

I think this is another example of popularity and commoditization eventually destroying something. First, telephones start out as expensive, only available in

I think this is another example of popularity and commoditization eventually destroying something. First, telephones start out as expensive, only available in big cities. I'm not old enough to remember this, but I suspect it would have been an exclusive and prestigious club. Eventually, telephones get widespread, and cheaper - I'm thinking like mid 90s, before mobile phones became mass market. This was "peak telephone", and it's what I remember from my youth. It was actually pretty good! As the author says, you could casually call your friends without seeming intrusive or clingy, and you could call most business or government agencies and talk to staff, getting quick responses to inquiries from knowledgeable people. Towards the end of this era, you have lots of information lines for time, weather, movies, phone banking services, etc. Around this time, call centers are introduced - if you call a business or government agency, you don't end up talking to some knowledgeable subject matter expert about some topic, you talk to a call center operator who has a script, and if it's anything non-trivial, tries to transfer you, call back, or generally mess you around. At this point, the phone network is so cheap, with so many subscribers that the temptation to abuse it to sell things to people is irresistible. Robo-dialling, answering machines, caller ID, and the Do Not Call registry are all introduced to the system, in a nuisance call arms race between callers and callees. The call centers go to India, and the Philippines. The call center operators get placed behind a interactive voice response system (IVR). Now, it's pretty much impossible to get anything useful done by phone. Landlines are disconnected, people have voice numbers on their mobile devices, but refuse to answer calls from numbers that aren't in their address book. Unfortunately, this seems to be the fundamental nature of communications networks - the story isn't much different for postal mail, fax, email, usenet, facebook. Success seems to kill the network in the end.

aikah 10y ago
> but refuse to answer calls from numbers that aren't in their address book. I do that. If I don't know the number and that person really wants to talk to me, there is my answer machine where he/she can leave a message. I will never answer a call from a number I do not know, whatever the reason. If it is urgent, the person has to leave a message, so I can call him/her back. Why ? because I get spammed X times a day with numbers from unknown origins. The worst is masked numbers off course.
- SapphireSun 10y ago
  I once got a call from a masked number where the guy was trying to scam me by telling me his "friend" was going to kill my brother unless I sent him some money. I didn't fall for it (the only credible info he had was stuff I told him), but it made me wary of unlisted numbers.
  - XorNot 10y ago
    Personally I think masked numbers should be phased out entirely.
    - 13of40 10y ago
      I had a series of spam calls a year or two ago where the caller's number was the same area code and first three digits as mine. At one point I even got a call from an irate Mexican woman who claimed I'd just made one of these calls to her. I guess the telemarketers figured out people are more likely to answer calls that look like they'really local, even if they don't recognize the number, and they had some way of spoofing it.
- luckman212 10y ago
  So, it isn't actually success that kills the network, it's just the spammers. What else is new.
  - contravariant 10y ago
    One could argue that it's success (i.e. it's popularity and commoditization) is what created the spammers.
- tormeh 10y ago
  Be wary of assuming that answer machines will be used. I'm 26 and I've never used an answer machine. Maybe accidentally. I'm probably not going to leave you a message because really few people listens to the message. I'm certainly not going to listen to a message someone leaves me. This is what SMS is for, I think.
13of40 10y ago
I think telephones were plentiful and cheap from about the 1950s on. The technology (at least from a customer perspective) really plateaued from then until the early 90s.
w8rbt 10y ago
When I was a kid, people did not own phones. They could only rent them from AT&T. I remember going with my family to buy our own phone (after that became legal). The FCC's Resale and Shared Use decision is a good read: http://etler.com/FCC/pdf/CC/CC%2080-54/FCC%2080-607.pdf http://etler.com/FCC/pdf/CC/CC%2080-54/FCC%2080-607.pdf As another note, I recently read that several hundred thousand Americans still rent landline phones from the phone company. https://consumerist.com/2012/04/30/hundreds-of-thousands-of-people-are-still-leasing-their-home-phones/ https://consumerist.com/2012/04/30/hundreds-of-thousands-of-...
j1vms 10y ago
> Unfortunately, this seems to be the fundamental nature of communications networks - the story isn't much different for postal mail, fax, email, usenet, facebook. Success seems to kill the network in the end. Actually, for a variety of reasons I think postal mail is going to be around for a long, long time, which is interesting since it predated the telephone. It could very well morph into "pick up from your local mail depot" for some people though.

aikah 10y ago

> but refuse to answer calls from numbers that aren't in their address book. I do that. If I don't know the number and that person really wants to talk to me, there is my answer machine where he/she can leave a message. I will never answer a call from a number I do not know, whatever the reason. If it is urgent, the person has to leave a message, so I can call him/her back. Why ? because I get spammed X times a day with numbers from unknown origins. The worst is masked numbers off course.

SapphireSun 10y ago
I once got a call from a masked number where the guy was trying to scam me by telling me his "friend" was going to kill my brother unless I sent him some money. I didn't fall for it (the only credible info he had was stuff I told him), but it made me wary of unlisted numbers.
- XorNot 10y ago
  Personally I think masked numbers should be phased out entirely.
  - 13of40 10y ago
    I had a series of spam calls a year or two ago where the caller's number was the same area code and first three digits as mine. At one point I even got a call from an irate Mexican woman who claimed I'd just made one of these calls to her. I guess the telemarketers figured out people are more likely to answer calls that look like they'really local, even if they don't recognize the number, and they had some way of spoofing it.
luckman212 10y ago
So, it isn't actually success that kills the network, it's just the spammers. What else is new.
- contravariant 10y ago
  One could argue that it's success (i.e. it's popularity and commoditization) is what created the spammers.
tormeh 10y ago
Be wary of assuming that answer machines will be used. I'm 26 and I've never used an answer machine. Maybe accidentally. I'm probably not going to leave you a message because really few people listens to the message. I'm certainly not going to listen to a message someone leaves me. This is what SMS is for, I think.

13of40 10y ago

I think telephones were plentiful and cheap from about the 1950s on. The technology (at least from a customer perspective) really plateaued from then until the early 90s.

w8rbt 10y ago

When I was a kid, people did not own phones. They could only rent them from AT&T. I remember going with my family to buy our own phone (after that became legal). The FCC's Resale and Shared Use decision is a good read: http://etler.com/FCC/pdf/CC/CC%2080-54/FCC%2080-607.pdf http://etler.com/FCC/pdf/CC/CC%2080-54/FCC%2080-607.pdf As another note, I recently read that several hundred thousand Americans still rent landline phones from the phone company. https://consumerist.com/2012/04/30/hundreds-of-thousands-of-people-are-still-leasing-their-home-phones/ https://consumerist.com/2012/04/30/hundreds-of-thousands-of-...

j1vms 10y ago

> Unfortunately, this seems to be the fundamental nature of communications networks - the story isn't much different for postal mail, fax, email, usenet, facebook. Success seems to kill the network in the end. Actually, for a variety of reasons I think postal mail is going to be around for a long, long time, which is interesting since it predated the telephone. It could very well morph into "pick up from your local mail depot" for some people though.