[rainnw]

Its sad that we are regressing from high quality to low quality voice telephony. Telephone companies are already petitioning (rather silently) to remove any aspect of regulation from the state utility commissions. I got a tattered postcard in fine print from CenturyLink explaining about such a hearing that will take place in .. get this .. 4 days on a weekday. I suspect they don't want the public to be very aware of this.

Soon, the last saviors of communication, the battery bank powered analog telephone line with cold war reliability, will be replaced with garbage DSL/VoIP modems that crash on a daily basis with choppy audio... yay.. i can't wait for another actiontec. This is going to be the replacement for the "landline". Seriously.

[doctorohhnoes]

That's assuming they'll provide it at all. I'm assuming if they get someone to overturn universal service regulations, some rural, less profitable communities may be deemed not worthy to keep providing service in at all.

I'm sure just the idea makes the cable companies feel all warm and fuzzy.