4 ms·

I think you're overlooking the "on their own" part. The OP isn't lamenting that things are less reliable in general, just that they aren't reliably capable of w

I think you're overlooking the "on their own" part. The OP isn't lamenting that things are less reliable in general, just that they aren't reliably capable of working offline or on a local network. Phones are maybe an odd example, but it's somewhat true: Traditional phone systems let you make local calls even if long-distance lines fail, or within a building without leaking data externally. Very few people would ever need (or expect) newer voice/video chat systems to be usable in this way, and they largely aren't.

CountSessine 6y ago
I don't think I've ever heard a fast-busy signal from my cell phone, even once. But it happened lots with landlines when too many people were making local telephone calls. Circuit switched networks kind of suck in a lot of ways. I don't think I would say traditional phone systems were as reliable as modern telephone and data systems.
- Lammy 6y ago
  They sure sounded a lot better though.
  - SllX 6y ago
    Not with VoLTE and FaceTime Audio around now. Inter-carrier calls can still suck, but I now have noise canceling headphones which enables me to get a much more intelligent signal out of the mouth of the other caller than I could with just the call speaker held up to my ear. There’s a lot that still sucks, but I don’t miss landlines the slightest bit. Scheduled do not disturb is a godsend next to trying to remember to turn the ringer on the landline in the hallway off at night.
  - falcolas 6y ago
    Lower latency too. It's crazy how much of a difference low latency really makes.
    - NickM 6y ago
      Yes, this 100%. I miss being able to talk to people like they're in the same room, with no detectable latency, the way that local landline calls used to work. I think most people don't realize why phone calls suck these days; it just feels awkward and cumbersome, but it doesn't have to be that way.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- falcolas 6y ago
  Wait for a disaster to happen in your area - a time when you'll want your cellphone the most. At which point your cellphone will be... well, a good camera. And personally, as someone who grew up in the 80's, let me offer up a counter-anecdote: I don't ever recall hearing a "fast-busy tone". There was never a time we couldn't use our land line (at least until we had a modem, that is).
  - stickfigure 6y ago
    I live in a disaster-prone (wildfire) area. I'll take cellphones over landlines every single time. 1) In the event of a major disaster, you've probably evacuated. You can't take your landline with you. 2) Telephone poles burn. 3) Even if the cellular system is completely hosed, you might still be able to get on a data network. All you need is crappy wifi anywhere (cafe, hotel, friend) and you can get an email out.
    - falcolas 6y ago
      I have to admit, I'm not entirely sure why there's so much hate for reliable technologies like landlines. All I can guess is that they stole someone's lunch money. Or people feel the need to justify their cellphone purchases by coming up with specious arguments against the "competition". 1) Not all disasters can be evacuated away from. Tornadoes, for example. 2) So do power poles. And those telephone poles are also probably carrying data. 3) You can't dial 911 via email. Cell network congestion is a well known phenomenon when disasters strike. It's been seen multiple times in the past. Yes, landlines can and do fail as well, but they're more resilient than cellphone networks. Perhaps this will flip in the future, but it hasn't, not yet.
      - stickfigure 6y ago
        1) How's landline infrastructure going to hold up to tornadoes? 2) Yes, power goes out too. Cellphones have batteries. 3) Yes, you can dial 911 via "wifi calling". I've done it. I don't know about "hate" but I do think landlines are overrated. You already have a cellphone. Paying for an extra service and apparatus for the tiny possibility that you need to call 911 when your cellphone can't - why? Who else are you going to call? Do you even know their phone numbers without your cellphone? I also think you're undervaluing cellphones by assuming they only talk on the cellular network. You just need to get on a data network somewhere and you suddenly have a wide variety of communication options, including phone calls. TCP/IP was designed to withstand nuclear war.
- toast0 6y ago
  Yeah, I don't think cell phones do fast-busy. They just timeout dialing without a carrier driven noise (mine have usually made the boop-boop noise like when the other party hangs up). Of course, with a cell phone, you can never tell if it's the network is busy or the tower is out of range, or the tower is broken. With a landline, you can tell if the line is dead (totally disconnected), really broken (voltage on the line, but no dialtone), or just pretty overloaded (dial tone, but fast busy for all numbers). And, if you made a habit of calling very busy numbers (like Netzero dial-ups), you could learn the tricks to get better priority; dialing the first N-1 digits, waiting a few seconds, and then the final digit would get me a waiting modem way better than just auto-redial on busy.
FpUser 6y ago
I am not sure about now but accordingly to what my friend told me at the end of 90s and in the beginning of 2000s in Russia they would wire whole apartment buildings as a very fast LAN with P2P capabilities. So if you urgently needed to download whatever there was very good chance that your request will not cross boundary of said LAN.
abruzzi 6y ago
heck, POTS line phones can even function with a power loss since they derive their power from the phone line (unless you have a POTS line phone like a cordless where it has to charge a battery and operate a 900mhz connection to the handset.)
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- vanilla_nut 6y ago
  As someone who grew up in a town with frequent winter storms that caused power outages, my family's POTS rotary phone was very handy during blackouts.
sn_master 6y ago
I was able to use the Windows XP Telnet app to chat and send ZIP files to another person when the Internet was down during the 2011 revolution. Hell, it was even better because only party had to pay the call's cost! POTS is amazing, and its sad to see it going away :(

CountSessine 6y ago

I don't think I've ever heard a fast-busy signal from my cell phone, even once. But it happened lots with landlines when too many people were making local telephone calls. Circuit switched networks kind of suck in a lot of ways. I don't think I would say traditional phone systems were as reliable as modern telephone and data systems.

Lammy 6y ago
They sure sounded a lot better though.
- SllX 6y ago
  Not with VoLTE and FaceTime Audio around now. Inter-carrier calls can still suck, but I now have noise canceling headphones which enables me to get a much more intelligent signal out of the mouth of the other caller than I could with just the call speaker held up to my ear. There’s a lot that still sucks, but I don’t miss landlines the slightest bit. Scheduled do not disturb is a godsend next to trying to remember to turn the ringer on the landline in the hallway off at night.
- falcolas 6y ago
  Lower latency too. It's crazy how much of a difference low latency really makes.
  - NickM 6y ago
    Yes, this 100%. I miss being able to talk to people like they're in the same room, with no detectable latency, the way that local landline calls used to work. I think most people don't realize why phone calls suck these days; it just feels awkward and cumbersome, but it doesn't have to be that way.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
falcolas 6y ago
Wait for a disaster to happen in your area - a time when you'll want your cellphone the most. At which point your cellphone will be... well, a good camera. And personally, as someone who grew up in the 80's, let me offer up a counter-anecdote: I don't ever recall hearing a "fast-busy tone". There was never a time we couldn't use our land line (at least until we had a modem, that is).
- stickfigure 6y ago
  I live in a disaster-prone (wildfire) area. I'll take cellphones over landlines every single time. 1) In the event of a major disaster, you've probably evacuated. You can't take your landline with you. 2) Telephone poles burn. 3) Even if the cellular system is completely hosed, you might still be able to get on a data network. All you need is crappy wifi anywhere (cafe, hotel, friend) and you can get an email out.
  - falcolas 6y ago
    I have to admit, I'm not entirely sure why there's so much hate for reliable technologies like landlines. All I can guess is that they stole someone's lunch money. Or people feel the need to justify their cellphone purchases by coming up with specious arguments against the "competition". 1) Not all disasters can be evacuated away from. Tornadoes, for example. 2) So do power poles. And those telephone poles are also probably carrying data. 3) You can't dial 911 via email. Cell network congestion is a well known phenomenon when disasters strike. It's been seen multiple times in the past. Yes, landlines can and do fail as well, but they're more resilient than cellphone networks. Perhaps this will flip in the future, but it hasn't, not yet.
    - stickfigure 6y ago
      1) How's landline infrastructure going to hold up to tornadoes? 2) Yes, power goes out too. Cellphones have batteries. 3) Yes, you can dial 911 via "wifi calling". I've done it. I don't know about "hate" but I do think landlines are overrated. You already have a cellphone. Paying for an extra service and apparatus for the tiny possibility that you need to call 911 when your cellphone can't - why? Who else are you going to call? Do you even know their phone numbers without your cellphone? I also think you're undervaluing cellphones by assuming they only talk on the cellular network. You just need to get on a data network somewhere and you suddenly have a wide variety of communication options, including phone calls. TCP/IP was designed to withstand nuclear war.
toast0 6y ago
Yeah, I don't think cell phones do fast-busy. They just timeout dialing without a carrier driven noise (mine have usually made the boop-boop noise like when the other party hangs up). Of course, with a cell phone, you can never tell if it's the network is busy or the tower is out of range, or the tower is broken. With a landline, you can tell if the line is dead (totally disconnected), really broken (voltage on the line, but no dialtone), or just pretty overloaded (dial tone, but fast busy for all numbers). And, if you made a habit of calling very busy numbers (like Netzero dial-ups), you could learn the tricks to get better priority; dialing the first N-1 digits, waiting a few seconds, and then the final digit would get me a waiting modem way better than just auto-redial on busy.

FpUser 6y ago

I am not sure about now but accordingly to what my friend told me at the end of 90s and in the beginning of 2000s in Russia they would wire whole apartment buildings as a very fast LAN with P2P capabilities. So if you urgently needed to download whatever there was very good chance that your request will not cross boundary of said LAN.

abruzzi 6y ago

heck, POTS line phones can even function with a power loss since they derive their power from the phone line (unless you have a POTS line phone like a cordless where it has to charge a battery and operate a 900mhz connection to the handset.)

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
vanilla_nut 6y ago
As someone who grew up in a town with frequent winter storms that caused power outages, my family's POTS rotary phone was very handy during blackouts.

sn_master 6y ago

I was able to use the Windows XP Telnet app to chat and send ZIP files to another person when the Internet was down during the 2011 revolution. Hell, it was even better because only party had to pay the call's cost! POTS is amazing, and its sad to see it going away :(