I just watched the Queensland floods special of #ABC #Landline and a few things stood out.

First, there were no perspectives from Aboriginal people or communities in western Queensland. I understand the show is primarily focused on farming, but you would think they could offer at least the same amount of airtime that they gave to the women rescuing her cats.

Second, half a million livestock are estimated to be drowned or starved as a consequence of the flooding, and there is an inevitability that future floods will occur. Should we be having a discussion about the ethics and viability of keeping livestock in western Queensland where flood and drought are so prevalent?

The old 4-1-1
Directory Assistance
Pre-Google help line

#Haiku #OneHaikuADay #WritersCollective #writingcommunity #BackToHaiku #411 #Directory #Assistance #DirectoryAssistance #Telephone #Phone #Operator #MayIHelpYou #Landline

April 11, 2025

I love a good #Landline story.
This is #ourABC at its best: a thoroughly-researched and well-edited piece on feral cat eradication on #KangarooIsland from Kerry Staight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukJY3fjWzyA

Had a thought over the weekend that our #VoIP service has a separate E911 entry from the main account, and the address might not be sync'd.

Sure enough that's the case - if you have an E911 provider, you should prob check that. If I'd called 911 they would've been dispatched to the old place. Ugh. Fixed now.

#Digital Voice switchover cut off 95-year-old's landline

My 95-year-old friend is in distress. His #landline has stopped ­working & he’s told by his provider #EE that he may need to accept a new phone number to get his ­service back

He lives alone & relies on his phone for human contact

It will be a challenge for him to let ­people know his new number and he risks being cut off from #medical #communications

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/feb/24/digital-voice-switchover-cut-off-my-95-year-old-friends-landline

I'm finding it increasingly difficult assisting people with using landline phones. At first it was folks forgetting the basics (like dialing the country code and area code), now it is people not understanding how to make a call at all.

I'm tempted to record education to demonstrate how to use a phone as well as basic phone etiquette (like leaving voicemail and what it should contain), but I don't know how to present it in a way that isn't intellectually insulting.

So I live out in the middle of country-side #Texas in a #TinyHouse I built on a big plot of land my family owns. My parents have a house on the same plot of land, but being Texas, it's actually a short drive to their house. They are old and like to check in but misplace their #cellphones a lot, and hate making the actual trip over. So I decided to build them a custom #telephone #network using a #PBX between our houses, running the wiring underground. Which means using old #landline #phones.

#ATT to kill off #landline #phoneservice for most people by 2029

https://www.zdnet.com/home-and-office/networking/at-t-to-kill-off-landline-phone-service-for-most-people-by-2029/

As one of the few people I know who still has a land-line, I'm sitting pretty smug as I can still receive all the robo spam I want. Wait... #verizon #verizonoutage #cellphone #landline

frog phone…

Really grateful to our ISP Zen and an Openreach engineer at 8am for a big speed boost to our home Internet. We finally switched from slow ADSL to fibre to the cabinet + VOIP for our long term landline number. Faster connections especially help my hardware/software engineer husband working from home. #broadband #fibre #FTTC #SoGEA #landline #DigitalVoice #VOIP #ISP #Zen #Internet #WFH #WorkingFromHome #Openreach #ADSL #PartFibre #ZenInternet #ZenBroadband

#USA #California #BigTelco #ATT #Landline: "The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) yesterday rejected AT&T's request to end its landline phone obligations. The state agency also urged AT&T to upgrade copper facilities to fiber instead of trying to shut down the outdated portions of its network.

AT&T asked the state to eliminate its Carrier of Last Resort (COLR) obligation, which requires it to provide landline telephone service to any potential customer in its service territory. A CPUC administrative law judge recommended rejection of the application last month, and the commission voted to dismiss AT&T's application with prejudice on Thursday.

"Our vote to dismiss AT&T's application made clear that we will protect customer access to basic telephone service... Our rules were designed to provide that assurance, and AT&T's application did not follow our rules," Commissioner John Reynolds said in a CPUC announcement."

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/06/california-rejects-att-request-to-end-carriers-landline-phone-obligation/

"Supervisor Mueller said the company is trying to skirt the #utilities commission and push the plan to scrap #landline services into the state legislature, where “#ATT spends significant amounts of money on campaign contributions https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/06/20/att-must-keep-providing-landline-service-regulator-rules/?

The president of #AT&T Illinois was just indicted for #bribery of public officials, conspiracy and unlawful activity to get the Illinois Legislature to pass bills letting AT&T dump their #landline network and speed up #smallcell installations. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/05/att-paid-bribes-to-get-two-major-pieces-of-legislation-passed-us-govt-says/