State of the Phones...

In aus.electronics noel <deletethis@invalid.lan> wrote:
On Mon, 05 May 2025 18:17:21 +1000, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:
were gone by the time I got back. My landline\'s still not working, it\'s
still just making the hang up \"boop, boop,\"
noise when you pick it up, which is one of the exchange\'s familiar
failure modes.

Is this \"boop boop\" like a busy signal except one tone loud the second
noticably softer?

The boops are all the same tone/volume. You get about 16 and a half
after picking up then it goes dead except for a hiss (which is the
exchange\'s other common failure mode).

--
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#_ < |\\| |< _#
 
In aus.electronics Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> wrote:
Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote:
Both of us were within line-of-sight of the phone tower. Phones
say they have signal inside the house/shed, but since the 3G
switch-off it just doesn\'t work anymore (although my older 4G
mobile broadband modem somehow seems to work a little better). But
they\'re in no hurry to fix the landlines because everyone\'s
supposed to be using mobile phones!

Which mobile providers are used? Elsewhere you imply Telstra for you,
but is it also Telstra for all other parties involved?

Yes, that person and most others I call use Testra or a Telstra
network reseller. I\'m using ALDIMobile, and the nearby tower is
covered in their sub-set of the Telstra network. I\'m starting to
wonder if Telstra\'s really still better than Optus (also Vodaphone
since they\'re apparantly using the Optus network now) since 3G
was turned off though. Coverage maps are clearly outright lies.

Don\'t You Guys(TM) have W-Fi Calling? We\'re back in The Netherlands,
but also here in some indoor locations, there\'s (too) little signal. So
for example when we\'re at our daughter\'s house, our phones switch to
Wi-Fi Calling on her Wi-Fi. No problem. If your phone and provider
support Wi-Fi Calling, there at least would be no problem on your end.

My phone doesn\'t, and the person I was calling doesn\'t have WiFi at
home. I\'m also not sure whether the old 4G mobile broadband modem
that powers my home WiFi is magically better than everyone\'s new
phone models, or it\'s something to do with the two-way data
streaming which makes 4G fail in low signal (since the phones
often say they have signal/bars, yet calls drop out once
started/answered). I never do any two-way streaming over my home
internet like for a phone call, and it\'s easy to ignore short
pauses during web page loading or downloads that would cause
words to be missed in a phone conversation. Logically my WiFi
_shouldn\'t_ be any better since both are using 4G.

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In aus.electronics Marco Moock <mm@dorfdsl.de> wrote:
On 05.05.2025 18:17 Uhr Computer Nerd Kev wrote:
I doubt anyone\'s using dial-up over the landline,

At least in the US and in Russia hundred thousands of people still
seem to use that.

Well, nobody I know anyway.

> Are you close enough to get DSL?

As Noel said the NBN covered places that had DSL so POTS was
turned off in those spots. Only dial-up was ever offered out
here, even though I\'m not that far from the exchange.

--
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#_ < |\\| |< _#
 
In aus.electronics Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote:
I never do any two-way streaming over my home internet like
for a phone call, and it\'s easy to ignore short pauses during
web page loading or downloads that would cause words to be
missed in a phone conversation. Logically my WiFi _shouldn\'t_
be any better since both are using 4G.

Actually I am working on an outdoor antenna for the 4G modem (in
fact with the modem itself moved outside too for less coax losses),
so WiFi calling or VOIP might be worth investigating once I\'ve got
that working.

--
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#_ < |\\| |< _#
 
On Tue, 06 May 2025 08:49:33 +1000, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:

in those spots. Only dial-up was ever offered out here, even though I\'m
not that far from the exchange.

That sux, a little known fact, since its gone, long gone, I can say this,
ADSL1 worked out to 6 km\'s from an exchange rock solid, of course telstra
failed the QT over 3.5/4 km\'s, and that was 1.5/256 days, I\'m sure if
they tested it again when opened up to 8/1 they could have got 1.5/256
out to 8 km\'s, but they never tested that AFAIK, so they rather keep
folks at those distances on dialup, they figured less fault reports, and
their ADSL2+ dslams failed over to ADSL2 then back to ADSL1, so they
COULD have had better internet at far greater distances, evne if tehy had
those folks agree the service was best-effort.

But NBN are just as fucked, we live like I said 45m north of CBD, NBN
been around since what 2013... and only late last year they rolled out
fibre here... It was getting so frustrating I considered setting up a
couple mikrotik dishes from the office to home, but that storage king
building accross the road from office was a bit too high and close, ahh
well.
 
On Tue, 06 May 2025 08:18:34 +1000, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:

In aus.electronics noel <deletethis@invalid.lan> wrote:
On Mon, 05 May 2025 18:17:21 +1000, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:
were gone by the time I got back. My landline\'s still not working,
it\'s still just making the hang up \"boop, boop,\"
noise when you pick it up, which is one of the exchange\'s familiar
failure modes.

Is this \"boop boop\" like a busy signal except one tone loud the second
noticably softer?

The boops are all the same tone/volume. You get about 16 and a half
after picking up then it goes dead except for a hiss (which is the
exchange\'s other common failure mode).

16 would be exchange hangup timeout, what have hel$tra said? perhaps a
call into ABC radio or, one of those tv current affair mobs (do they
still exist, I dont watch much TV these days unless its footy) they might
help, AFAIK all outages from cyclone are resolved, took some time south
around Logan, so no excuse for any exchange to be unservicable after a
week, but oitd a byproduct of NBN, since POTs is no longer an \"essential\"
service, where the bloody internet now is, so kids can get their pr0n...
who cares about calling paramedics when you download steve does jessica.
this country\'s gone arse about face.
 
In aus.electronics noel <deletethis@invalid.lan> wrote:
On Tue, 06 May 2025 08:18:34 +1000, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:
In aus.electronics noel <deletethis@invalid.lan> wrote:
On Mon, 05 May 2025 18:17:21 +1000, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:
were gone by the time I got back. My landline\'s still not working,
it\'s still just making the hang up \"boop, boop,\"
noise when you pick it up, which is one of the exchange\'s familiar
failure modes.

Is this \"boop boop\" like a busy signal except one tone loud the second
noticably softer?

The boops are all the same tone/volume. You get about 16 and a half
after picking up then it goes dead except for a hiss (which is the
exchange\'s other common failure mode).

16 would be exchange hangup timeout, what have hel$tra said? perhaps a
call into ABC radio or, one of those tv current affair mobs

They finished the job yesterday and it\'s finally working again.
It\'s nothing new really with the exchange, there were a few years
where it would be broken for days after every power outage (even
though a hiss on the line while the power was out suggested that
the backup power was working). The problem is that now, without
3G, mobile phones are no longer a reliable alternative to it.
Plenty of coverage of that problem on TV and newspapers back when
3G was switched off, but telcos willfully ignored all that, and
politicians didn\'t even care to talk about it at the election
except some meaningless babble from Labor about Elon Musk replacing
phone towers with satellites. As if that\'s easier than making the
phone tower on a mountain a few Km away from me work as well as it
did last year! Clearly nobody really gives a stuff about phone
service beyond the suburbs anymore.

--
__ __
#_ < |\\| |< _#
 
On Thu, 8 May 2025, Ozix wrote:
I still have a landline (running off Optus NBN). After a power failure, the
internet comes back, but not the landline. So I have to call Optarse support
and get them to reset at their end. Usually the cubicle drone has no idea
about this, so have to ask them to get their N+1 to fix it.

fttn or fttp?
Is the phone totally dead or any noise, do you get dtmf if you hit a
button?
 
nb wrote:
On Thu, 8 May 2025, Ozix wrote:

I still have a landline (running off Optus NBN). After a power
failure, the internet comes back, but not the landline. So I have to
call Optarse support and get them to reset at their end. Usually the
cubicle drone has no idea about this, so have to ask them to get their
N+1 to fix it.


fttn or fttp?
Is the phone totally dead or any noise, do you get dtmf if you hit a
button?

No tone - the phone LED on Optus modem doesn\'t light up. Probably a
firmware bug in new modem. The old modem used to recover from power
failure okay. And on FTTP.
 
Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote

> Phones just don\'t work anymore in rural areas.

Bullshit

My landline\'s been dead for over a week with some trouble at the
exchange.

The plug has been pulled on the copper pair landline service

Still works fine on the internet service

Using the mobile phone I usually keep in the car for
emergencies I tried calling someone who lives locally yesterday,
outside for good reception. It went to voice mail on two attempts.
A while later they called back and said their phone hadn\'t got
reception where it was in their house when I\'d called. I went
outside to get better reception on my end, but then it was too
windy so they couldn\'t hear me, so I went into the shed but the
phone dropped out, so I went out again and yelled into the phone,
and I still don\'t think they could hear me. I gave up.

Both of us were within line-of-sight of the phone tower. Phones
say they have signal inside the house/shed, but since the 3G
switch-off it just doesn\'t work anymore (although my older 4G
mobile broadband modem somehow seems to work a little better). But
they\'re in no hurry to fix the landlines because everyone\'s
supposed to be using mobile phones!

They are in no hurry to fix the landline because the plug is being
pulled on the copper pair landline service and has been replaced
by a phone service on the internet service
 
Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote
Marco Moock <mm@dorfdsl.de> wrote
Computer Nerd Kev wrote

Phones just don\'t work anymore in rural areas.

My landline\'s been dead for over a week with some trouble at the
exchange.

Analog landline or any kind of xDSL?

Still real analogue POTS out here beyond the towns/cities that the
NBN covers.

The NBN covers more than just towns and cities

I did see a Telstra ute outside the exchange when I
went to town today. I didn\'t have time to stop and ask what the
story was and they were gone by the time I got back. My landline\'s
still not working, it\'s still just making the hang up \"boop, boop,\"
noise when you pick it up, which is one of the exchange\'s familiar
failure modes.

But they\'re in no hurry to fix the landlines because everyone\'s
supposed to be using mobile phones!

Don\'t they complain because of non-working internet access?

I doubt anyone\'s using dial-up over the landline, but I do have
trouble with the mobile broadband modem I use for my home internet
dropping out since the 3G switch-off, yet not half as bad as with
phone calls for some reason. Even though the mobile phones all
support Telstra\'s \"new\" 700MHz \"4GX\" band, which my old modem
doesn\'t.

Then you need to get a new one

Other locals use satellite internet but that was unreliable too
back when I used it (and I hear it still is). Perhaps Starlink
is better, but it\'s too expensive for me anyway.
 
On Tue, 06 May 2025 08:39:34 +1000, Computer Nerd Kev
<not@telling.you.invalid> wrote:

In aus.electronics Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> wrote:
Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote:
Both of us were within line-of-sight of the phone tower. Phones
say they have signal inside the house/shed, but since the 3G
switch-off it just doesn\'t work anymore (although my older 4G
mobile broadband modem somehow seems to work a little better). But
they\'re in no hurry to fix the landlines because everyone\'s
supposed to be using mobile phones!

Which mobile providers are used? Elsewhere you imply Telstra for you,
but is it also Telstra for all other parties involved?

Yes, that person and most others I call use Testra or a Telstra
network reseller. I\'m using ALDIMobile, and the nearby tower is
covered in their sub-set of the Telstra network. I\'m starting to
wonder if Telstra\'s really still better than Optus (also Vodaphone
since they\'re apparantly using the Optus network now) since 3G
was turned off though.

Vodaphone does not use the Optus network now and I know that
because a mate of mine uses Vodaphone and gets and awful result
with it that he never got when he used the Optus system previously

Coverage maps are clearly outright lies.

Don\'t You Guys(TM) have W-Fi Calling? We\'re back in The Netherlands,
but also here in some indoor locations, there\'s (too) little signal. So
for example when we\'re at our daughter\'s house, our phones switch to
Wi-Fi Calling on her Wi-Fi. No problem. If your phone and provider
support Wi-Fi Calling, there at least would be no problem on your end.

My phone doesn\'t, and the person I was calling doesn\'t have WiFi at
home. I\'m also not sure whether the old 4G mobile broadband modem
that powers my home WiFi is magically better than everyone\'s new
phone models, or it\'s something to do with the two-way data
streaming which makes 4G fail in low signal (since the phones
often say they have signal/bars, yet calls drop out once
started/answered). I never do any two-way streaming over my home
internet like for a phone call, and it\'s easy to ignore short
pauses during web page loading or downloads that would cause
words to be missed in a phone conversation. Logically my WiFi
_shouldn\'t_ be any better since both are using 4G.
 
On Wed, 07 May 2025 09:23:33 +1000, Computer Nerd Kev
<not@telling.you.invalid> wrote:

In aus.electronics noel <deletethis@invalid.lan> wrote:
On Tue, 06 May 2025 08:18:34 +1000, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:
In aus.electronics noel <deletethis@invalid.lan> wrote:
On Mon, 05 May 2025 18:17:21 +1000, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:
were gone by the time I got back. My landline\'s still not working,
it\'s still just making the hang up \"boop, boop,\"
noise when you pick it up, which is one of the exchange\'s familiar
failure modes.

Is this \"boop boop\" like a busy signal except one tone loud the second
noticably softer?

The boops are all the same tone/volume. You get about 16 and a half
after picking up then it goes dead except for a hiss (which is the
exchange\'s other common failure mode).

16 would be exchange hangup timeout, what have hel$tra said? perhaps a
call into ABC radio or, one of those tv current affair mobs

They finished the job yesterday and it\'s finally working again.
It\'s nothing new really with the exchange, there were a few years
where it would be broken for days after every power outage (even
though a hiss on the line while the power was out suggested that
the backup power was working). The problem is that now, without
3G, mobile phones are no longer a reliable alternative to it.
Plenty of coverage of that problem on TV and newspapers back when
3G was switched off, but telcos willfully ignored all that, and
politicians didn\'t even care to talk about it at the election
except some meaningless babble from Labor about Elon Musk replacing
phone towers with satellites. As if that\'s easier than making the
phone tower on a mountain a few Km away from me work as well as it
did last year!

Clearly nobody really gives a stuff about phone
service beyond the suburbs anymore.

You are completely wrong about that
 
In aus.electronics Rod Speed <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> wrote:
Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote
Marco Moock <mm@dorfdsl.de> wrote
Computer Nerd Kev wrote
Phones just don\'t work anymore in rural areas.

My landline\'s been dead for over a week with some trouble at the
exchange.

Analog landline or any kind of xDSL?

Still real analogue POTS out here beyond the towns/cities that the
NBN covers.

The NBN covers more than just towns and cities

Yeah but via satellite or fixed wireless, not the phone line, and
only satellite where I am.

I doubt anyone\'s using dial-up over the landline, but I do have
trouble with the mobile broadband modem I use for my home internet
dropping out since the 3G switch-off, yet not half as bad as with
phone calls for some reason. Even though the mobile phones all
support Telstra\'s \"new\" 700MHz \"4GX\" band, which my old modem
doesn\'t.

Then you need to get a new one

The 700MHz band seems to be useless here anyway, since the phones
that support it work even worse. New modems are too limited anyway
since none of them support AT commands anymore, so you\'re stuck
with some dopey web interface.

--
__ __
#_ < |\\| |< _#
 
Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote
Rod Speed <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> wrote
Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote
Marco Moock <mm@dorfdsl.de> wrote
Computer Nerd Kev wrote
Phones just don\'t work anymore in rural areas.

My landline\'s been dead for over a week with some trouble at the
exchange.

Analog landline or any kind of xDSL?

Still real analogue POTS out here beyond the towns/cities that the
NBN covers.

The NBN covers more than just towns and cities

Yeah but via satellite or fixed wireless, not the phone line, and
only satellite where I am.

Still what the phone service is provided over if you still want one

I doubt anyone\'s using dial-up over the landline, but I do have
trouble with the mobile broadband modem I use for my home internet
dropping out since the 3G switch-off, yet not half as bad as with
phone calls for some reason. Even though the mobile phones all
support Telstra\'s \"new\" 700MHz \"4GX\" band, which my old modem
doesn\'t.

Then you need to get a new one

The 700MHz band seems to be useless here anyway, since the phones
that support it work even worse.

Fantasy

New modems are too limited anyway
since none of them support AT commands anymore, so you\'re stuck
with some dopey web interface.

Wrong with wifi calling
 
On Sat, 10 May 2025 07:49:53 +1000, Rod Speed wrote:

Still real analogue POTS out here beyond the towns/cities that the NBN
covers.

The NBN covers more than just towns and cities

thats right, but its deemed internally as unstable for voip hence why
rural folks get internet from skymuster or LTE/wireless but landline via
copper still ofr phone calls, come on roddles, you know this already.
 
noel <deletethis@invalid.lan> wrote
Rod Speed wrote

Still real analogue POTS out here beyond the towns/cities that the NBN
covers.

The NBN covers more than just towns and cities

thats right, but its deemed internally as unstable for voip

Bullshit

hence why rural folks get internet from skymuster or LTE/wireless but
landline via
copper still ofr phone calls,

That last is bullshit

> come on roddles, you know this already.

I know you don\'t have a clue and that voip is fine over LTE and wireless
 
On Sun, 11 May 2025 00:27:56 +1000, Rod Speed wrote:

noel <deletethis@invalid.lan> wrote
Rod Speed wrote

Still real analogue POTS out here beyond the towns/cities that the
NBN covers.

The NBN covers more than just towns and cities

thats right, but its deemed internally as unstable for voip

Bullshit

hence why rural folks get internet from skymuster or LTE/wireless but
landline via copper still ofr phone calls,

That last is bullshit

come on roddles, you know this already.

I know you don\'t have a clue and that voip is fine over LTE and wireless

Did I say otherwise, read above you senile old cunt, SOL gets put above
your gay porn downloading.


but thats ok rod bot you troll what eeevveerrrrrrrrr you like youve
nerver been one to let facts disrupt your trolling in all the years youve
stole oxygen
 
On Sun, 11 May 2025 09:35:45 +1000, noel <deletethis@invalid.lan> wrote:

On Sun, 11 May 2025 00:27:56 +1000, Rod Speed wrote:

noel <deletethis@invalid.lan> wrote
Rod Speed wrote

Still real analogue POTS out here beyond the towns/cities that the
NBN covers.

The NBN covers more than just towns and cities

thats right, but its deemed internally as unstable for voip

Bullshit

hence why rural folks get internet from skymuster or LTE/wireless but
landline via copper still ofr phone calls,

That last is bullshit

come on roddles, you know this already.

I know you don\'t have a clue and that voip is fine over LTE and wireless

Did I say otherwise,

We can see that you did you pathetic excuse for a bullshit artist

> read above

You are the one that needs to do that

<reams of your puerile shit flushed where it belongs>
 

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