At 21 Feb 2008 19:28:30 -0800 SMS wrote:
>. In fact, the reason Verizon did this was because they believe that
> they'll be able to entice more people to drop landline service and have
> only a cell phone.


Which is ironic, since Verizon and AT&T are the two largest landline
companies in the US!

> I doubt that $100 unlimited is going to cause many people to drop a
> $20/month landline. Why do people keep landlines?


A $20 landline? Where, (or when!) do you live?

I have a landline here in Denver through Qwest. Local service is $25, plus
a $6.50 fee to ostensibly cover interconnect (ironic, since all local calls
would likely be to other Qwest customers, so they're taking my money to
connect my Qwest line to OTHER Qwest lines!) So "local" service is $32
plus about $7 and change in various fees and taxes. That's a $40 landline,
without LD.

My DSL is $27 on top of that (it'd be $32 for dry DSL.)

Switching to T-Mo's Talk Forever would raise my cell bill about $12 ($10
plus $0.86 in fes plus a buck and change in tax) and save me $35 or so from
Qwest, putting me ahead about $20/month.

> 1. 911 service, especially if you have kids

E911 from VoIP with a pre-defined location is acceptable.

> 2. Reliability


I'll give you that one. My DSL service flakes out avbout once a week or two,
requring me to reboot my modem.

> 3. DSL

Thankfully there's only a $5 penalty for dry DSL here, otherwise there's
always cable. A bit more expensive, but much faster, and probably less
flakey.

> 4. "Free" local calls
>
> Only number 4 is addressed by the unlimited wireless plans.

And T-Mo's Talk Forever router, of course.

I'd probably jump all over the TF thing IF it had cellular backup- to
enhance reliability it'd be neat if it fell back to cellular if the
internet connection was unavailable. T-Mo could put warning lights and
buzzers all over it to indicate calls were no longer "free" and either
charge a reasonable per minute fee, give you a small "backup" cell-minute
bucket, or deduct the minutes from the cellphone plan theTF account was
tied to.

Internet telephony generally wins over POTS on cost- the largest barrier
to widespread acceptance is ease of use and reliability- the use of regular
home phones through the router accomplishes the former, and automatic
cellular backup would accomplish the latter.