Millions in California could lose their AT&T landlines. Here's why | Hacker News Reader

Millions in California could lose their AT&T landlines. Here's why

sfchronicle.com

10 pointsmikhael9 comments

Doesn't anyone make a VoIP adapter with built-in battery backup and 4G fallback?

It wouldn't even need any monthly fee at all to be able to do emergency calls.

Not useful for people who live in areas without cell service. These folks will have no way to make calls from home if ATT pulls out.

Are they pulling out of internet too?

I live 12 miles from the Googleplex and there's no cell here and of course no cable or fiber, just an AT&T land line and a WISP connection (a radio mounted 170' up one of my redwoods) that isn't enough to do wifi calling.

Our line has been down most of the last year and AT&T are dragging their feet hoping they can disconnect rather than properly fix the line (undergrounding). The redwoods here are too tall for old style and new low latency satellites and the county isn't coming to save us.

Our only hope for maintaining 911 and fire service is that AT&T is stopped and forced to uphold its commitment to rural customers, the commitment that gave them their monopoly around here and helped them grow into the massive company they are today. Without AT&T, we rely on a neighbor that's licensed for ham to reach the sheriff for any emergencies.

Again, this is 12 miles as the crow flies from the heart of Silicon Valley, that close to Google, Facebook, Oracle, Stanford, and more. No cable. No fiber. No cellular. And soon no landline it seems.

Oh wow, I had no idea things were like that anywhere near silicon valley.

I wonder why they don't just require them to install fiber or DSL before they can cancel anything. Has StarLink made everyone lose interest in rural broadband expansion?

I live about 180 miles north of silicon valley. The only utility I get here is high speed internet via a radio receiver in a redwood tree[0]. I just tested and I'm getting 20mb down/30 up, 30ms ping. Plenty for wifi calling, video calls, etc. I'm surprised your WISP has such poor performance?

[0] https://furtherreach.net/

Yeah, I believe they send DSL through the same lines that they don't want to support anymore.

That's what's offered here in the UK, but there have still been a lot of problems with the transition.

Typically the battery backup only lasts for 1 hour.

Dear SFC: adding "Here's why" to the headline is a pointless affectation...

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