RCN is ending analog line service December 1
I recently received a notice from my cable-TV company (RCN) notifying me that on December 1, they will no longer be providing telephone service. I originally bought their "bundle",back when I was renovating my home, so this causes me a problem. They were gracious enough to offer me broadband phone service, but will continue to charge me at the old analog rate. RCN will give me a $50 credit on next month's bill.
I went to the Arlington walk-in center to inquire and the woman staffing the payment desk was uninformed. I don't want to change my phone number, so it is a dilemma.
This looks like a national trend.
While researching my alternatives, my priority is to keep my local number. It seems important to offset any perceived savings by avoiding a communications hassle. I have an elderly mother and father-in-law and want to make sure they can continue to contact me without any issues. So I'll accept RCN's offer, at least temporarily. Vonage nor any of the VOIP providers are able to maintain my local phone number.
While doing my research, I found some interesting items:
The University of Kentucky has gone wireless. Seems UK is disconnecting its old-fashioned wired telephone lines in student dormitories and incoming students will have to use their personal cell phones. The move will save the university $840,000; it was paying about $25 per landline each month. The savings from canceling the lines has been passed on to the students, university officials said.
According to the report I read, about $100,000 of the savings went to improve dormitory Internet connections. The university's 5,600 dorm residents still can request a phone line. A recent survey found that 98.2 percent of students in UK dorms own and preferred to use their cell phones.
Just a few years ago, UK dorms had 3,060 landline phones. Now they have 260. These include hall phones for emergency use.
The university still has the ability to contact most students during an emergency through cell phones, especially through text messaging. What isn't addressed is the impact on emergency services, such as 9-1-1. Nonetheless, what this means to me is that landlines, as we know them, are dying a slow death.
Comments
I will gladly kiss land lines good bye if they take the phone bill with them!
I live in arlington and that arlington office is a disaster!! That lady does not know what she is doing!!
Anyway I got the letter a while ago and made the switch to digital, which by the way I thought I already had. I have the two year price guarantee so it has not affected my bill.
If you have phone service with them already then I do not know why you would have to change phone numbers. I kept my same phone number.
But now I have a moden instead of a direct connection. It has a battery backup but if the power goes out for a day or two then I am screwed and the modem is always on so who knows if I am going to have problems with that.
I orginally switched from comcast who did the switch over a year or two ago and wanted to charge us for the modem rental. If RCN is going to do that once my two year price guarantee is over then I am just going to get rid of my landline.
So we will see how it all works out, I just wish they would leave things alone.
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