Telephone Land Line Removal?

[dave*99]

Fixed.

Oh, you speak FORTRAN I see.

 

[Mike65]

When we bought our house, the line was disconnected outside the house, so I removed all the remaining wire & boxes in the house.

 

[bwringer]

...We also have a whole house intercom... I kinda want to fix it.

When I was a kid, a friend's house had this, and it was pretty cool. His Mom could tell us lunch was ready, or shut up, etc. Our house wasn't that fancy, so my Mom just had to bellow, old-fashioned style.

From what I've observed from our grandkids, the thing to do now is just text your kids when you're not in the same room.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Fixed.

huh?

 

[skeer]

Reminds me.. I should cut the box off my house. the only physical service we could even get here is Pigeon Telelphone Co. And, serious as sh1t, their local service is a group os small towns. You can't even call the nearest town that's bigger than 2K people that roughly 18 miles away w/o long distance.

 

[inphx]

 

[Metal-Marc]

huh?

Wether there is voltage or not on the old telephone cable is irrelevant. Just cut the cable.

 

[BrandonV]

Wether there is voltage or not on the old telephone cable is irrelevant. Just cut the cable.

Yup. All the equipment I've ever used at the CO end or subscriber carrier loop will not care if its shorted out. There are protections against that.

 

[Beemer]

So, at the insistence of the current phone company's customer service rep to come out and "do it right", I let them do it.
When asked if I could have just cut the wires off the tech showed me a pair of scissors that he uses and said "yes". No effect on the neighbors and if still powered it's just 48 volts. His scissors didn't even have insulation.
I won't say that this information applies anywhere but our location but only that it is our recent experience.

A retired iron worker friend would say "let's not over engineer this."

 

[reader2580]

I'm shocked the phone company would spend the money to roll a truck to remove a phone line. They aren't really making any money on residential POTS these days so sending a truck for this just makes it even more unprofitable.

 

[Cc_windsurfer]

We have no land line service. We do have an old l land line that has been inactive for at least 15 years. I found an old rotary phone under the house that fit on the wall mount in the kitchen, so for laughs I hooked it up. Had to disconnect it after a couple of days because it kept ringing with telemarketer calls... WTF

 

[reader2580]

I removed all of the RJ-11 phone jacks in my house when I remodeled before moving in. There were actual boxes in the wall for the phone lines so I reused them for RJ-45 Ethernet jacks. I removed most of the phone wire from the basement, but there might be some down there yet.

I had switched to OOMA at my old house back in the 2000s. I had intended to reinstall my OOMA box at my new house with just one phone, but I never did it and finally disconnected the service after paying the $5 or $6 per month for several years of non-use. I just use my cell phone for everything these days like many people do.

 

[Beemer]

I'm shocked the phone company would spend the money to roll a truck to remove a phone line. They aren't really making any money on residential POTS these days so sending a truck for this just makes it even more unprofitable.

I think they make plenty of profit. Mother had a land line with the company and with low income subsidy the bill was near $50 a month for a few local calls a week.

Besides they were just in the neighborhood trying to peddle fiber internet while downplaying the local cable company so they may be trying to make an impression.

 

[nadogail]

Who would you call? Everyone except you would be on VOIP and cell and would be out of service.

Fire and Police will be up, either on Emergancy Power or Plain Old Telephone Service, (POTS) with station batteries.

 

[BrandonV]

Fire and Police will be up, either on Emergancy Power or Plain Old Telephone Service, (POTS) with station batteries.

Most of the POTS systems these days are digital loop carriers powered by equipment in your neighborhood. Those batteries get far less maintenance than they should.

More attention is given these days to emergency generator power for cell towers and the like.

Doesn't matter much. I live in Phoenix and 911 gives me a busy signal 9/10 anyways...

 

[zendriver]

I think they make plenty of profit. Mother had a land line with the company and with low income subsidy the bill was near $50 a month for a few local calls a week.

Besides they were just in the neighborhood trying to peddle fiber internet while downplaying the local cable company so they may be trying to make an impression.

How much profit do you think they make?

Land Line make up 25% of the US telephone market, operating on a wire infrastructure in some cases might be 70 years old

When we were unfortunate enough to have Land Line DSL service, we were having a problem and it took several days for them to get a contract technician that had to come over from Ohio almost 100 miles away

 

[Snapped-off]

I just cut my landline down a couple weeks ago when a delivery driver backed into it. If I ever get Fiber in my area the coax is coming down too.

 

[Beemer]

How much profit do you think they make?

Land Line make up 25% of the US telephone market, operating on a wire infrastructure in some cases might be 70 years old

When we were unfortunate enough to have Land Line DSL service, we were having a problem and it took several days for them to get a contract technician that had to come over from Ohio almost 100 miles away

I've done consulting work for our former teleco and they had pockets full of money. What utility doesn't?

 

[welder4956]

How much profit do you think they make?

Land Line make up 25% of the US telephone market, operating on a wire infrastructure in some cases might be 70 years old

When we were unfortunate enough to have Land Line DSL service, we were having a problem and it took several days for them to get a contract technician that had to come over from Ohio almost 100 miles away

The phone companies that are regulated are usually allowed to fully recover the decommissioning cost in their rates plus depreciation of their value. There is no hit to their profits when removing the hard lines.

 

[Beemer]

The phone companies that are regulated are usually allowed to fully recover the decommissioning cost in their rates plus depreciation of their value. There is no hit to their profits when removing the hard lines.

Fiber just came to our street and a wandering college student came around with a hard sell against the cable company.

Unfortunately the fiber company has no integral tv service here and has been jumping around to different technologies (all of which were not good and abandoned through time), now suggesting outside streaming services. That is a drawback for us because it is really convenient to have the expansive tv services and a comprehensive menu system built into the cable package. The drawback is the cost of that convenience. I will hand it to the cable company that when there are service glitches someone is out here to fix it pronto. We had intermittent connection issues and they came right out and replaced the cable from the street and down the house and fixed the problem that the little rascal squirrel had done to the wire.

Fiber might be attractive to some based on the speed claims but long ago I figured out hat after a certain point additional speed is not useful because there tend to be limits at the sites connected to that don't require great speeds. My former employer would say "How high is up?"

 

[Jim greengo]

Been painting around an old telephone junction box and lines on our house that was disconnected long ago.
The original company has changed hands twice so there is no account/service records with the current one and asking them the following question didn't get a straight answer: "Is it ok to just cut the wires outside and on our house?"
I wasn't sure if there would be any issue to possible other users at other houses. I doubt that there are any but it's worth researching first.
Also I wasn't sure of the lines carried any voltage so again what possible effect on others. I seem to recall the phones operated off a low voltage that mush have come in on the lines.

 

[Jim greengo]

Been painting around an old telephone junction box and lines on our house that was disconnected long ago.
The original company has changed hands twice so there is no account/service records with the current one and asking them the following question didn't get a straight answer: "Is it ok to just cut the wires outside and on our house?"
I wasn't sure if there would be any issue to possible other users at other houses. I doubt that there are any but it's worth researching first.
Also I wasn't sure of the lines carried any voltage so again what possible effect on others. I seem to recall the phones operated off a low voltage that mush have come in on the lines.

I'd check it with a meter just incase,then hack away.

 

[Metal-Marc]

I'd check it with a meter just incase,then hack away.

What for? This has been covered already.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Fiber just came to our street and a wandering college student came around with a hard sell against the cable company.

Unfortunately the fiber company has no integral tv service here and has been jumping around to different technologies (all of which were not good and abandoned through time), now suggesting outside streaming services. That is a drawback for us because it is really convenient to have the expansive tv services and a comprehensive menu system built into the cable package. The drawback is the cost of that convenience. I will hand it to the cable company that when there are service glitches someone is out here to fix it pronto. We had intermittent connection issues and they came right out and replaced the cable from the street and down the house and fixed the problem that the little rascal squirrel had done to the wire.

have you tried streaming services like Sling TV? they have a really good menu system and Channel Guide.... there are many more like them...and they are affordable

Fiber might be attractive to some based on the speed claims but long ago I figured out hat after a certain point additional speed is not useful because there tend to be limits at the sites connected to that don't require great speeds. My former employer would say "How high is up?"

Bingo. the servers pushing the content to your hosts have lots of bandwidth but each user connection is traffic shaped to limit speeds and prevent anyone one connection from hogging all the available speed.

you will be hard pressed to find a server that can push content to you at your 1Gbps fiber connection speed...

 

[Lorydr]

I'd check it with a meter just incase,then hack away.

If one is worried about getting shocked use insulated wire cutters and leather gloves.
These old wires and voltages are fuse protected so equipment doesn't get hurt when the wires are shorted.

 

[Jim greengo]

What for? This has been covered already.

Last time I checked telephone lines carried 90 volts.
Plenty of people been killed over the years assuming things were dead.
But feel free to do what makes ya happy.

 

[LopezBart]

you will be hard pressed to find a server that can push content to you at your 1Gbps fiber connection speed...

Note of course that most large scale content providers use content distribution networks; these are basically caches of content sited near points of presence (internet 'nodes' if you will). These caches gets automatically populated when new content appears on the originating site; they make it possible to stream amazing amounts of data in aggregate since none of it is sourced from a single point. This is critical for distribution of pictures, video, etc in any quantity. The content to be distributed is typically retrieved by its cryptographic hash.

 

[PCustoms]

Last time I checked telephone lines carried 90 volts.
Plenty of people been killed over the years assuming things were dead.
But feel free to do what makes ya happy.

Killed from a telephone line?

Ok.

 

[Jim greengo]

Killed from a telephone line?

Ok.

Power in general.
I remember helping a buddy building a beer cooler at a gas station when I was young/dumb.
Had to move some phone wires that were in our way.
Being young/dumb I stripped the phone wires with my teeth,thinking what can a phone line do to me?
I vaguely remember waking up on the floor after getting booted off the cooler,everybody else got a good laugh out of it.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Last time I checked telephone lines carried 90 volts.
Plenty of people been killed over the years assuming things were dead.
But feel free to do what makes ya happy.

only when ringing... standby/on-hook and off-hook voltage is 48-52v

 

[Metal-Marc]

Killed from a telephone line?

Ok.

Piano wire or telephone line, easy to strangle someone. I've seen it done in movies.

 

[Metal-Marc]

Last time I checked telephone lines carried 90 volts.
Plenty of people been killed over the years assuming things were dead.
But feel free to do what makes ya happy.

I'm happy. You don't look happy to me.

As I said, it's been covered. The way this works is it does not matter if you short both wires in a residential loop. That's how this works. Now, if you stick wires in your mouth or any other orifice, then that's on you.

 

[PCustoms]

Now, if you stick wires in your mouth or any other orifice, then that's on you.

The safe word is "operator"

 

[Metal-Marc]

The safe word is "operator"

 

[Beemer]

Last time I checked telephone lines carried 90 volts.
Plenty of people been killed over the years assuming things were dead.
But feel free to do what makes ya happy.

The phone company tech that removed it told me if anything, 45 volts. But for all I know that could just be in our area on an old system.
As I mentioned he showed me a pair of non-insulated scissors and said that is what he uses.

 

[Beemer]

One ringy dingy......

 

[Jim greengo]

only when ringing... standby/on-hook and off-hook voltage is 48-52v

It doesn't take much to stop a heart,speaking as a guy on his 3rd pacemaker. Hahaha

 

[Jim greengo]

The phone company tech that removed it told me if anything, 45 volts. But for all I know that could just be in our area on an old system.
As I mentioned he showed me a pair of non-insulated scissors and said that is what he uses.

Phone/cable boxes have had 90v stickers on them for probably atleast 30 years around omaha anyway.

 

[Jim greengo]

The safe word is "operator"

Did I mention younger and even dumber?
Pretty sure I did,back around 1980 I'm thinking. Hahaha

 

[Beemer]

Power in general.
I remember helping a buddy building a beer cooler at a gas station when I was young/dumb.
Had to move some phone wires that were in our way.
Being young/dumb I stripped the phone wires with my teeth,thinking what can a phone line do to me?
I vaguely remember waking up on the floor after getting booted off the cooler,everybody else got a good laugh out of it.

In light of the fact that country kids got their hands on vehicles at early ages.......
Reminds me of a grammar school science fair project I did setting up an operable vintage car ignition system on a coffee table; washing machine motor, car generator, distributor, coil, spark plugs and related wires plus the various belts to have everything working as it should.
RDF (not me) came along and grabbed a spark plug/wire and got a quick lesson. There was peripheral laughter involved.