>
> new standard in many northern European countries is to have fiber to
> the home in entire cities.
>
It does help that the government is doing two things though, it is MANDATING
it and it is also helping to PAY for it. Here, we're more customer driven
and we let the customers demand it but unless we can find somebody else to
pay for it, it won't get built. There just isn't that much profit margin in
data-only or voice-data services. If you go "triple-play" it's another
story, though.
> As for telephone service, when I moved from the US to Belgium in 1995,
> I did not notice any deterioration in service. Same thing when I later
> moved to Switzerland and then to Holland and then to Spain.
LOL, you didn't mention France, Ireland or England. BT was pretty horrid
till about 1995. During the '90s when I went back and forth a lot, I noticed
a marked improvement as time went on. But Ireland remained pretty aweful
till EU dollars started flowing in. Italy, even in '98 was a gut-wrench
experience.
In any
> event, like most people in my circle of friends and acquaintances,
> fixed-line telephone service is irrelevant these days. I do not even
> remember my home phone number; the only number that matters is my
> cellphone.
>
Yes, I agree. Honestly, the only reason we have a land-line is because of
DSL and the fact I get a huge employee discount. I've used the land-line
all of maybe five times in the last year and a half. When we moved and got
our new number, I spent an hour going through our number pool finding a
number that I could remember.
But at work... That's another story. I'm on a landline most of the time
unless I'm doing a field trip.
AG
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