The Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Plan has caught the attention of every telecommunications, digital media and technology firm.
As the business world waits for the plan to be released next month, many are speculating about what it will include and how they should react.
IBM surveyed 8,000 consumers and 60 telecom company executives to get a sense of Internet-related trends over the next decade, showing that broadband will continue to evolve and expand while traditional communications infrastructure--those copper lines we've used to make phone calls for decades--will rapidly disappear.
IBM predicts that the use of land lines will decrease by 95 percent in the next five to 10 years. Conversely, usage of mobile and wireless broadband will increase by 98 percent during the same period.
9 comments:
This really is a travesty to let these lines go to waste. It is something that can never be rebuilt. Wireless phones are definately one of the worst inventions of the 21st century. I miss having a phone that worked! That was loud and clear and reliable. I miss people not being able to get ahold of you, and courtesy on the phone. I miss not having music blaring in your ear while waiting for someone to answer. I miss being able to go to the bank without having to hear 3 people conversations on the phone.
This will only take place because it's the peoples choice. More and more people are choosing to use cell phones and disconnecting the land line. Land lines will be available for a long time to come for those that want them. Don't forget that you can still use a rotary dial if you want to but most people choose not to use that old technology.
I doubt copper lines will ever go away. They are justification for some of those mysterious fees and taxes on our phone bills. We've been paying since WWII to wire up this nation, yet Verizon will never go back and fix the long loops and thin copper lines which are now sub-standard because it doesn't offer enough ROI. What are the infrastructure fees I pay each month for, then?
"What are the infrastructure fees I pay each month for, then?"
Broadband connections for welfare families so they can get free movies online..
:-)
A few minutes after reading this column I read the following column on NPR.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124125001
I used to work in a two-way radio shop, and one year in the late 80s minor solar flare-ups caused alot of communication problems. Makes you wonder what would happen in a worst case solar storm scenario as we continue to become a wireless world.
12:21PM
Three letters for you...EMP. That's how the WWIII scenario will start.
What a silly conclusion. Landlines might disappear residentially, sure, but for every business in the US, they will use a regular landline. Companies with thousands of employees, all of whom have a landline on their desk, won't switch over to wireless anytime soon. This survey obviously doesn't take into account the world of business.
I seriously doubt that the copper lines would ever go to waste,that being said,Im sure the "copper bandits" will recycle the wire.LOL!!
Bring back the rotary phone so we will NEVER again have to press 1 for English!
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