When will POTS officially end?

In case you are lost, POTS means plain old telephone service. It doesn’t refer to Internet VOIP or Mobile phone technology – both of which I embrace and often use.

Anyway, back to the question.

The question again:

This was a question asked to me, by a LinkedIn sales contact. He was responding to this article I shared: Why Your Cell Phone Doesn’t Have a Dial Tone Let’s answer the original question first. Phil Porter worked with Richard Frenkiel on the original system. Here are their thoughts on this matter:

“Should a cellular phone have a dial tone? Porter made a radical suggestion that it shouldn’t. A caller should dial a number and then push “send.” That way, the mobile caller would be less rushed; also, the call would be connected for a shorter time, thus putting less strain on the network.”

Motorola Mobility observations

Skype Voice Calls Work on iPad with Everyman H... — Skype Voice Calls Work on iPad with Everyman Headset (Photo credit: stevegarfield)

Here’s an interesting observation I made, based on working for seven years with Motorola Mobility (now owned by Google). In the original system, the technical designer made the decision. While working with electrical and mechanical engineers, marketing always came up with ideas. Or they got involved with ideas that designers came up with. Many times you need advice from marketing, legal, design, etc. It’s difficult getting all factions to agree. Me? I just provided software support via Apache/Unix websites and Oracle databases for engineers.

I had bosses who thought I should run Oracle databases for Apache/Java websites. But I thought MySQL was better suited. For that matter, so did Yahoo. In fact, Oracle ended up buying MySQL. What does that tell you?

Government regulations article

Anyway, I did share this second article with the salesman: Is ATT’s plan to end land-line phone service crazy, or just crazy enough? The POS is actually protected in the US by federal law. Here’s what the article had to say:

“It’s so ubiquitous and so reliable that the notion of eliminating it is quite literally banned by law — it’s written into Section 214 of Title 47, the portion of the US Code established largely by the Communications Act of 1934”

LinkedIn discussion

The LinkedIn discussion was part of an article discussion shared. At It’s entitled Is plain old telephone service really dying?. Since I found the LinkedIn group discussion via Google, I’ll share it here. The title is the same: Is plain old telephone service really dying?. You can sample all the expert opinions – if you like. But as long as there are governmental regulations involved, POTS will probably be here a long, long time.

Use with Google Voice

The problem that POTS still solves is localized emergency service. That’s why I use an ATT land line, with Google Voice piggybacking for local and long distance calls. I basically use it for emergency, call receiving and toll free calls. I also use Skype for calling from the computer and international calls to other Skype users. NetTalk Duo used to be good – but they got average reviews now on Amazon. I think it’s due to customer service. And Magic Jack? I wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole. They also got average reviews on Amazon.

Computer backup

This is a good podcast about securing computers. It’s called Theft: 9 Ways to Protect Yourself From Losing Your Data

Do You need Both a business VoIP phone and a Plain Old Telephone Service? (carrietrudell12.wordpress.com)
Are you prepared to switch to the more progressive Business VoIP (carrietrudell12.wordpress.com)
The History Of POTS (futurelawyer.typepad.com)
Why are enterprises clinging to legacy phone systems? VoIP vs PSTN: What’s best for your business? (enterprisetechnologyconsultant.wordpress.com)
The Phone Number is Dead – Voice Over IP Demystified (500.co)