AT&T lost 1.56 million phone lines in the quarter

[sandbox]

AT&T lost 1.56 million phone lines in the quarter, up from 1.35 million in the same quarter a year ago. That's a rate of 10 percent per year. It blamed, in part, the downturn in the real-estate market, which has hit hard in some AT&T service areas, like Florida and the Midwest.

Meanwhile, Comcast added 555,000 voice customers.

Cablevision Systems Corp., which competes with Verizon's FiOS in 30 percent of its service area, added 52,000 broadband subscribers, 10 percent better than a year ago, and 81,000 phone subscribers, up 26 percent.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...8080802377.html

[Gregg]

Haven't seen our AT&T line since they buried it in the back yard.

That's the land line, of course. What about growth in cell phone customers? I doubt that AT&T picked up 1.5 million new iPhone customers.

[krissel]

Verizon is losing land lines, too.

http://www.slate.com/id/2195765/


I suspect that the increase in Cablevision is due to their triple offering of cable, internet and phone. I get weekly mailings offering big deals if I sign up for all three which I have considered since it would be cheaper than getting cable and internet by themselves. If I did I don't think I would use the phone that much.  The main reason I am not biting is that their deals are for one or two years then the full price kicks in.  That's too much for me at this point. I'm going to wait til the digital transition to see how much I still receive in TV signals. Presently I get most of the regular channels except for PBS.  They claim they will be boosting their signal at the change over but will have to see. Would really miss those programs.

[sandbox]

a lot depends on what YOU use.

if your not a big phone person use skpe http://www.skype.com/welcomeback/ on a cable line.
if you don't use cellphones your cost of communication will be lite.
if your a cellphone user and want a home phone get T-mobile Home http://www.t-mobileathome.com/ for $10 bucks a month.

I don't like DSL, it fails around here and it's slow. I would get FiOS if and or when it is available. Until then cable is cheap enough. You can but the lite-plan 3-5Mbps if you don't need speed, for about $30 a mouth+tax and fees.or regular internet cable for $44,  basic cableTV is $40. they have $99 combos in Jersey at Comcast. add 17% tax&fess.
Basic cable isn't worth it. Rabbit ears rule!!!! I use satellite but pay through the nose-holes.

If I didn't use all this stuff for business, I would throw it in the trash, talk to myself and listen to the birds.

[dboh]

QUOTE(sandbox @ Aug 10 2008, 03:26 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It blamed, in part, the downturn in the real-estate market, which has hit hard in some AT&T service areas, like Florida and the Midwest.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...8080802377.html

Harrumph. I'd blame the incredibly lousy customer service.

[Shades of Gray]

QUOTE(dboh @ Aug 14 2008, 06:51 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

QUOTE(sandbox @ Aug 10 2008, 03:26 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It blamed, in part, the downturn in the real-estate market, which has hit hard in some AT&T service areas, like Florida and the Midwest.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...8080802377.html

Harrumph. I'd blame the incredibly lousy customer service.

Several years ago I had Comcast... and the Internet was down an average of 1-2 days per month, and cable was $50+ at that time, and it has gone up since then. I went back to dial-up for a while, then switched to AT&T DSL four years ago. In that time there has been only one outage (about 1 day). Otherwise it has been flawless. We are in the old SBC region, and customer service has been goo here.

[Gregg]

I agree. Our AT&T DSL service has been excellent.

[kimmer]

QUOTE(sandbox @ Aug 14 2008, 01:40 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Rabbit ears rule!!!!

Not in all areas, and even then ... they won't be worth a tinkers darn come Feb. 17, 2009.

[sandbox]

QUOTE(kimmer @ Aug 14 2008, 10:06 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

QUOTE(sandbox @ Aug 14 2008, 01:40 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Rabbit ears rule!!!!

Not in all areas, and even then ... they won't be worth a tinkers darn come Feb. 17, 2009.

they'll still be good, just use the $40 digital box.

[gunug]

On the subject of the cable company serving as home telephone provider: in Lawrence we have a local cable company that does a "very" poor job with this and most people want to change back after they've changed!

I'm using "powered" rabbit ears and HD converter box and getting excellent digital broadcasts from the Kansas City area!  I'm going to find a solution that will allow me to pickup the Topeka stations as well!

[Xairbusdriver]

WOW! They have TV in Topeka, now? That must mean they have electricity, too! I've been gone for about 40 years, guess it's changed a bit!

[kimmer]

QUOTE(sandbox @ Aug 15 2008, 02:49 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

QUOTE(kimmer @ Aug 14 2008, 10:06 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

QUOTE(sandbox @ Aug 14 2008, 01:40 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Rabbit ears rule!!!!

Not in all areas, and even then ... they won't be worth a tinkers darn come Feb. 17, 2009.

they'll still be good, just use the $40 digital box.

Yeah, but around here folks can't find the box; but then the selections they'd pull in are slim to none anyhow.

[sandbox]

QUOTE(gunug @ Aug 15 2008, 08:55 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

On the subject of the cable company serving as home telephone provider: in Lawrence we have a local cable company that does a "very" poor job with this and most people want to change back after they've changed!

I had the cable VOIP and switched to Voicepulse years ago.
I only use the cable for modem, my TV is on satellite.

Voicepulse works fine for me, we use it as an outgoing line and fax line, for $25 bucks a month.
It has a great webpage account control panel, you can do whatever you need, filters, blocks, hide your ID +++ and time stamp billing.

If you have someone that calls often, like family, you can set up a number in their area code for $5 bucks a month and they call a local number so they are not charged long distance rates. I know...long distance is becoming a thing of the past, but many folks are still using the regular old "twisted pair" and pay extra for long distance calls. For our clients that don't use the internet we setup a local number in their area, it works great!

[krissel]

Regarding the digital converter boxes:

I spent a lot of time researching them and finally decided that the Zenith DTT 901 and the Channel Master 7000 were two very good models.  The Zenith has a analog pass-through which is good for now since it lets you have it hooked up and either use the box for digital or analog now. The Channel Master is only digital so if you want to watch analog now, you need to unhook it. I do like the program guide better on the CM so it has its benefits.

The Zenith is available at Radio Shack and Circuit City. Just be sure you get the 901 and not the earlier 900 which had some sound issues.  I've hooked mine up and it finds all but the local PBS stations with my antenna. I'm hoping they increase their power come next Feb as I will be very upset if I can't get PBS. I don't want to have to pay for cable just for that.

But the one thing that is going to be a problem is the weather. If there is fog or storms I lose the digital signal, just like a satellite dish.

Bummer.

[sandbox]

Kris, when I used an antenna I also use this.....works.......good
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.js...oductId=2103094