this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2025
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I miss POTS. Copper landlines are a thing of the past. Now it’s just VoIP with a battery that doesn’t last long enough and another bill. (And place for scam/telemarketers/junk calls)
In some areas you can no longer get a landline. I was discussing this with someone who lives rural and the phone company will not serve any of the addresses outside of towns.
That's strange to me as I still have a POTS line and have never been without one through my different abodes. I will say that only a few calls come in on it, but I use it for outbound calls quite often. Almost all of the spam calls come in on the cellphone now.
I remember reading about the last hand-crank phone being removed (As an aside, my memory had this happening 20 years ago. Lol, it was 35!):
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1990/07/13/Remote-Idaho-town-retires-last-crank-call/3557647841600/
"Smith said with hand-cranked telephones, 'sometimes the connection cracks up and you only hear every third word.'"
Hey, just like my cell service!
Last I heard, all the providers in the US are in the “we’re not actively canceling them, but we won’t roll out new ones or fix problems.
Yes, that seems to be the case. If you do cancel and move, the new owners won’t get a landline. The carrier in this particular area has also contracted out any rural service work.