Grumble Thread

[oddoneout]

Maybe they claim the old phone system is more expensive to maintain, as they did with the old railway system they wrecked in the 1960s. Was it AJP Taylor who said 'one thing we learn from history is that people never learn from history'?

In the future there'll be TV documentaries about it, asking 'how did we (alwys 'we' not they) allow it to happen?'

From the Ofcom link posted earlier

This network is old, and becoming harder and more expensive to maintain, so it needs to be replaced.

and

BT has taken the decision to retire its PSTN by December 2025 and this means other providers that use BT’s network must follow the same timescale.

and - perhaps the most telling -

The decision to close the PSTN has been made by industry, not Ofcom or the UK Government.

[oddoneout]

Talking of phones, routers and internet based calls, aside from the problems with power cuts causing people to be cut off, there's also the problem with call quality. We have VOIP (Voice Over Internet Phones) at work and they are awful! Sometimes the person on the other end of the call sounds more like a Dalek than a human! Why replace a perfectly decent system with something digital all in the way of progress even though it's worse than the original system? Crass stupidity rules again - it's rather like the farcical idea of turning off the FM signal and making everything digital radio based from a few years ago.

Having had experience both at my former workplace and in the local library, the poor voice quality is something that does worry me, since I have problems understanding speech (auditory perception,not a hearing loss issue) which is made worse by phones at the best of times. Increasingly, as businesses have made the change I have found exchanges very difficult. Having the calls going through a computer rather than a hand/head set certainly makes it worse, especially in a multi-purpose constantly busy space such as the main office at work, where background noise gets added to the already poor sound quality.

[french frank]

I don't know what VOIP is, but BT says my digital phone has "HD Voice for excellent sound quality". Hadn't noticed any improvement.

Apparently, landlines are set to make a comeback:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/feb/15/landline-phones-gen-z

[Pulcinella]

I don't know what VOIP is, but BT says my digital phone has "HD Voice for excellent sound quality". Hadn't noticed any improvement.

Apparently, landlines are set to make a comeback:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeands...e-phones-gen-z

Voice Over Internet Protocol

[french frank]

Voice Over Internet Protocol

That's as good as telling me that BLDC stands for Brushless Direct Current motor, or AMOLED is Active Matrix Organic LED (Light-emitting diode?). But what does it mean? Is VOIP what I have with my HD digital handsets or is it something completely different?

[Pulcinella]

That's as good as telling me that BLDC stands for Brushless Direct Current motor, or AMOLED is Active Matrix Organic LED (Light-emitting diode?). But what does it mean? Is VOIP what I have with my HD digital handsets or is it something completely different?

I'm as much in the dark as you are, but I was advised to activate it on my mobile phone as it would then route calls from home via the internet rather than via the weak regular mobile connection, which keeps breaking up, despite being only a couple of miles from a city centre, where you'd imagine the signal to be strong. How it knows what the person at the other end has as 'their' (sic) protocol, I don't know, but perhaps it doesn't matter!

[Serial_Apologist]

Well, in the case of the switch to DAB+, a cynic might argue that the aim is to increase sales of DAB+ radios. There's a general tendency to think that. because something is technologically possible, its value must be proved by exploiting it for commercial gain while pretending that it's a good thing for society.

Released on the public before proper tests ensuring safety as much as security had been secured, like Thalidomide.

[Serial_Apologist]

Apparently, landlines are set to make a comeback:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeands...e-phones-gen-z

Then I may not be alone in hoping so, and not only for the oft-vaunted "freedom of choice" for which our wonderful capitalist system is forever lauded by our impartial broadcasting media. Among the lengthy delays while chat show hosts go through the tedious social media contacts, mention is interminably being made to pure quality audibility from mobile phones, with callers constantly urged to use the additionally much cheaper landline.

[oddoneout]

I don't know what VOIP is, but BT says my digital phone has "HD Voice for excellent sound quality". Hadn't noticed any improvement.

Apparently, landlines are set to make a comeback:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeands...e-phones-gen-z

I'm not sure that means what you might think. In the UK "landline" still mostly means the copper wire connected system that's being phased out. As far as I can see the article is referring to what we might call handsets - the bit you speak into/dial numbers on, which plugs into a socket. Whether that socket connects to the traditional(soon to be obsolete) copper or to the internet is a separate issue. I have a traditional socket connected to copper, into which I can plug a phone direct if the power goes off *.That proved useful a year or so ago when there was a lengthy cut but I had update messages sent to the phone which I had disconnected from the internet adaptor and plugged in direct, as I am on the utility's priority list(thanks(!) to age). I don't have a smart phone and obviously the computer didn't work so that was helpful for knowing when normal service might resume. The computer gubbins plugs into the same socket via an adaptor. Of course, as things stand, when the change is implemented I will no longer get such messages, as plugging the phone into the socket when the power is off won't work anymore. I don't know for sure at this stage whether the existing phone combo(desk downstairs plus cordless unit upstairs) will work; it should, but that was said about the digibox I had ahead of the TV digital switch and proved to be untrue. It's progress apparently...

*I have had for many years a basic £5 Argos phone as standby, dating back to problems in 2 previous houses, and kept when I realised that the new phone needed a power supply to work at all.

[LMcD]

I'm not sure that means what you might think. In the UK "landline" still mostly means the copper wire connected system that's being phased out. As far as I can see the article is referring to what we might call handsets - the bit you speak into/dial numbers on, which plugs into a socket. Whether that socket connects to the traditional(soon to be obsolete) copper or to the internet is a separate issue. I have a traditional socket connected to copper, into which I can plug a phone direct if the power goes off *.That proved useful a year or so ago when there was a lengthy cut but I had update messages sent to the phone which I had disconnected from the internet adaptor and plugged in direct, as I am on the utility's priority list(thanks(!) to age). I don't have a smart phone and obviously the computer didn't work so that was helpful for knowing when normal service might resume. The computer gubbins plugs into the same socket via an adaptor. Of course, as things stand, when the change is implemented I will no longer get such messages, as plugging the phone into the socket when the power is off won't work anymore. I don't know for sure at this stage whether the existing phone combo(desk downstairs plus cordless unit upstairs) will work; it should, but that was said about the digibox I had ahead of the TV digital switch and proved to be untrue. It's progress apparently...

*I have had for many years a basic £5 Argos phone as standby, dating back to problems in 2 previous houses, and kept when I realised that the new phone needed a power supply to work at all.

I was advised to plug something or other into the back of my BT Smart Hub, and the only difference I've noticed is that I now have to include the area code when dialling a local number.

[oddoneout]

I was advised to plug something or other into the back of my BT Smart Hub, and the only difference I've noticed is that I now have to include the area code when dialling a local number.

Might have something to do with this?

Removing the obligation on telecoms providers to provide local dialling Local dialling lets someone make a call from one landline to another landline in the same area without dialling the area code. We are removing the requirement to provide local dialling on landline phone services since we consider that the value of this facility to phone users has declined and it is more complex to provide on IP networks. We anticipate that telecoms providers are likely to remove this facility as they migrate landline customers to new IP voice services. We have set out our expectations for measures that telecoms providers should take when removing local dialling to mitigate any risk of confusion or harm for their customers.

From this https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/asse...-numbering.pdf
Reminds me that phoning local numbers used to be cheaper than long distance, now the classification is "geographic" for both and it's all expensive.

[Serial_Apologist]

See what I mean? New technology purely introduced to increase the profits of the suppliers, regardless of inconveniencing the general "consumer". I was just saying this to a lady behind me in the supermarket queue: remember a time when all this self service was brought in to speed up shopping and free up time for other activities? In the end the self-employed small high street retailer was either to turn to selling more expensive "niche products" or go out of business. Hence the oft-mentioned "death of the high street" - by which time the supermarket giants had introduced this and that addendum to slow down what had once been a simple money for goods exchange act, shrunk their work forces, and monopolised pricing at the expense of their farmer providers.

No one is claiming some sort of equivalent disaster will automatically befall humankind from the misnamed technological progress, nor are we saying consequences of technological advance need automatically be detrimental. But no one predicted its effects on retail, along with its associated social dislocation when we consider the effects of phone addiction on present and upcoming generations; For new tech to benefit all the necessity for its introduction has to be for purposes of freeing up time for activities other than shopping and working the longer hours deemed inevitable by slimming down labour costs in order to maintain competitive advantage.

[Old Grumpy]

Then I may not be alone in hoping so, and not only for the oft-vaunted "freedom of choice" for which our wonderful capitalist system is forever lauded by our impartial broadcasting media. Among the lengthy delays while chat show hosts go through the tedious social media contacts, mention is interminably being made to pure quality audibility from mobile phones, with callers constantly urged to use the additionally much cheaper landline.

The pervasive nature of social media posts in all broadcast programmes is to be regretted - I'm afraid I am just not interested in what so-and-so said.

Pure quality audibility sounds ideal, but poor quality is a problem. I suspect part of the problem may be the flat nature of a smartphone which means either the mouth or the ear are not near the microphone/speaker. I'm not sure modern digital landline handsets are any better.

Bring back the brick and the dial telephone ?!

[french frank]

Bring back the brick and the dial telephone ?!

Or the old candlestick handset where you just unhooked the receiver and waited until an operator spoke to you. ("This is Nailsea 193. Can I have Bristol 46xxx, please?") Trunk calls might take rather longer to connect, though. In fact I'm not sure that they didn't have to be booked ...

[Serial_Apologist]

The pervasive nature of social media posts in all broadcast programmes is to be regretted - I'm afraid I am just not interested in what so-and-so said.

Pure quality audibility sounds ideal, but poor quality is a problem. I suspect part of the problem may be the flat nature of a smartphone which means either the mouth or the ear are not near the microphone/speaker. I'm not sure modern digital landline handsets are any better.

Bring back the brick and the dial telephone ?!

Yes, I should have typed "poor" not "pure". Spellcheck can't make up for failing brain power!