Louisiana Towns Going High-Tech

wolverineinspector writes "Mink, LA is finally getting telephone land lines after the neighbouring communities got theirs in 1970. In the article they also say that as many as 6.2% of US homes don't have phone service - that would mean that 19 million Americans don't have wired phone lines available to them."

Just because 6.2% don't have phones

[WilliamsDA]

Just because 6.2% of people don't have wired phones doesn't mean that the service isn't available to them. A lot of people ditch their wired lines and just use their cell phone.

Most people I know dont have phone lines.

[blanks]

" 6.2% of US homes don't have phone service "
Does this include the number of people who have cellphones that dont want a land line.

Or how about the people that just dont want a land line. Or get digital phone service from their cable provider.

Re:why bother when there are cell phones?

[Zocalo]

how are they going to recuperate the capital cost?

It's not just about voice: xDSL services also run over landlines. In the UK wireless broadband services are almost always significantly more expensive than wired, and are often considered as a last resort solution. Even with the considerably more dispersed population of the bulk of the US, I doubt that things are much different on the other side of the pond.

No Phone != Primitive ==> Example: China

[Anonymous Coward]

The grandparent article gives the impression that Mink, LA is a primitive place because its people are just now getting landline telephones. Do not be deceived. Technology or the lack of it does not necessarily correlate with the sophistication of the people. I bet good money that the folks in Mink, LA live far better and higher quality lives than the folks with actual landline phones in either China or India. [phrusa.org]

Both the Chinese and the Indians support massive numbers of abortions targetting female fetuses. You tell me. Who is the barbarian?

Re:Just because 6.2% don't have phones

[Lord Kano]

I wonder what the percentage of Amish in the population is.

LK

Re:Since when..

[slavemowgli]

The posting's title was obviously sarcastic.

Re:Reasons why people don't have phone service

[Radical Rad]

The reason I don't have a phone is that when I built my house, the regional bell would not hook up a new phone service unless I provided them with copies of 2 of the following 3 documents: drivers license, social security card, birth certificate. I explained to them that the grocer and gas station and numerous other businesses don't demand to keep my personal information on file in order to allow me to buy from them. The woman I was talking to informed me that if I wanted a phone I didn't have a choice in the matter. I begged her pardon but I do have a choice. Bye bye Ameritech. You've lost a customer for life. I found I am much happier without a phone anyway. In the year and a half since then I have not had one telemarketing call disturb my dinner or television shows and I have other things I can spend $30 a month on like high speed internet access.

Re:Rural Telecommunications Acts

[EnronHaliburton2004]

It all gets paid for by federal grants.

Hm, I wonder how many of these people moved out to the country because they wanted to "get the government off their backs", or were looking for lower taxes...

Re:Demand - Supply

[TheHawke]

Don't mean a dammed thing... Telephones come under the definition of UTILITY. Meaning, that the CLEC has no option that if a client wants telephone service installed, they have to run the dammed wires to the utility drop at the property line, no matter if it means 2 miles off of the road or 20. Then it's up to the client to finish the run to his home via any method that he/she can find, by either running the lead-in via poles or bury the bloody thing. The telephone company CANNOT deny ANYONE service based upon location, that is FEDERAL Law.

If they bitch, take it up the ladder to the next in command, and keep it up until you find a joker that will help you out.

If that fails, call, email, or write to your state PUC and drop the hammer on the telco's head, HARD!
These money-grubbing weasels will try to wriggle out of ANY money-losing opportunity that they can, even at the expense of a customers life.

Re:'Nother night gathered roun' the pay phone....

[some guy I know]

From the descriptions the article has of the inhabitants, I can't imagine their phone calls being very thrilling.

My guess is that 99.99% of anybody's (except, perhaps, phone-sex workers') phone calls are probably not very thrilling.
Kind of like blogs, really.

Universal Service

[Detritus]

In past surveys, one of the major reasons that people do not have telephones is financial. Poor people often have bad credit, the telephone company wants all old bills paid before restoring service, the telephone company wants a large deposit, the head-of-household is unable to control usage of the telephone by other family members and visitors, and the cost is unpredictable. A typical scenario is that a household gets a telephone, the service gets abused for long distance and other premium calls, the household gets a large bill that they can't pay, the bill doesn't get paid, resulting in termination of service and a poor credit reference. Restoration of service would be expensive and would just setup the household for another cycle of abuse and disconnection. As a solution, some people have suggested requiring the telephone company to offer a fixed-cost service that would have permanent blocks for long distance and premium calls. The bill would be guaranteed to be $X a month, no matter how the phone was used.

Re:Just because 6.2% don't have phones

[Anonymous Coward]

With all due respect... why does it *have* to make sense ? They are not asking you to convert to their ways. And they are perfectly happy the way they are.

Why cant we just let people be ?