No. Years ago, just before Ma Bell got broken up into Baby Bells (remember when we cared about not having monopolies?), I had a t-shirt that had the Ma Bell logo on it as depicted in this Wiki article, top right:
Only the logo had a pair of Mickey Mouse ears added to it. Below the logo on the t-shirt were printed those words, “We don’t care. We don’t have to.”
It’s not Ma Bell anymore, but the sentiment of my current phone (sometimes) provider appears to be the same.
I had a cat disappear once. Slipped out the door unnoticed one night, and was gone for three months. I walked around the neighborhood calling her name, posted a notice on NextDoor, and registered with the local animal control website. Then after three months she shows up in the front yard. I found out later that one of my neighbors had been putting out food for her - the neighbor wasn’t on NextDoor so she didn’t see my notice.
I see that my suggestion to contact the appropriate state (or federal, or both) regulatory agency has already been made. To me, the combination of no cellular service and a lengthy landline outage is almost inconceivable. Lack of access to emergency services is a genuine life-threatening hazard. This is much more than just a major inconvenience. I would definitely get the appropriate government agency up their asses, and I’d be pretty damn adamant about it.
If you have internet service from some other source, have you considered the idea of a VoIP service as an emergency backup? Personally, as a paranoid nut, I’m big on the idea of emergency backups. I pay for an overpriced landline service that I hardly ever use mostly to have a second option for access to 911 services.
It has perhaps recently become a possibility. I’m confined to not-the-fastest satellite service, but they are now offering some decent packages I’m going to investigate. LOL, or I will when I have phone service back again!
This land line phone company has left me without phone service – which also affects my business, incidentally – for as long as two weeks at a time. And it happens regularly all winter. Usually the outages are for a day or two. We’re already on Day Three of this one.
Like you, I want back up systems and will probably keep at least one land line even with the shitty service. Our power is somewhat unreliable also, so even though the slowish satellite is rock solid, it doesn’t work when the power goes.
Lovin’ the rural life! 
What I meant was that was the line that Ernestine made famous as her tag line, even back in the Laugh-In days.
I loved Ernestine and even did a fair to middling impersonation of her back in the day! I think she was the inspiration for the t-shirt, now I recall it. She was marvelous!
I was about to message you to ask who your carrier was, but then I saw your location. You are definitely out of my ILEC’s territory.
Thanks for looking. The carrier is CenturyLink. They just so suck!!
The way you were talking about it, I thought for sure you were one of our customers.
Back when I finally dropped my landline - after a month of no service due to some defective equipment outside the house - I was rather surprised at how easy it was for me to close the account. The company made no effort to keep me as a customer; it’s clear that, for this particular phone company, landlines aren’t their primary business anymore.
ETA: just finished reading the thread…my carrier was CenturyLink too!!!
I’m sure my experience would be identical to yours if I were to cancel my service. They don’t care about their customers at all.
A few years ago, I was excited to watch their installation crews installing gigabit fiber lines down my street. “At last!” I thought, “I’ll finally have a gigabit fiber option!” I actually went and talked to the installation crew to verify that’s what they were doing.
I waited with eager anticipation for the company to let me know the new service was available. I never heard from them. I finally asked them about it and got the big non-informative schmuck-off.
During another phone outage, I had the opportunity to speak with one of their technicians and asked him what the hold-up was on the gigabit fiber option. He looked understandably sheepish, and then finally shared that the company had no plans to offer the service to their customers. Ever. The government grant, part of Biden’s early efforts for infrastructure improvement with rural broadband, wasn’t enough to cover the costs to run the infrastructure to the homes from the road. I’m pretty sure that effort was intended to be a cost-sharing exercise.
But that’s CenturyLink. Marvelous company, eh?
We used to have both landline and DSL service through them. Our service went out during the pandemic, when I had to work from home and Internet service was not optional. After making a huge stink they sent someone out to fix the problem. But I sure didn’t forget it, and when better service became available, out they went.
TBH, copper landlines like what you have (TDMs) is expensive to operate and maintain. I’ve been getting rid of the old TDM equipment. We have been moving to soft switches. We are running fiber to the pedestal and copper to the prem. The cost difference in power alone from a TDM switch to a Metaswitch is incredible.
And the infrastructure grants were intended to be cost sharing, but those C-Suite bonuses don’t pay for themselves
CenturyLink was my old telephone provider, but that had zero interest in providing reliable service. I had an issue with noise on my line whenever it rained, and they traced it down to a bad copper line to my house. They switched the wire pairs to my house, but that didn’t solve the issue. And they sure as hell were not going to replace their copper wiring to my house. But I lived on the fringe ara of my town and they were the only option I had for Internet with a blazing fast 7 Mbps DSL. But soon after my wiring issue Comcast finally offered cable internet in my area, and I made the switch right away. And as much as people love to hate Comcast, in my case they have been nothing but a great internet provider, and offering better and better speeds at lower costs.
What really pissed me off about CenturyLink was the fact that all of the fees and taxes that were added to my bill basically doubled the cost of their service, and apparently the fee that was supposed to provide better service for rural areas was just a big fuck off. Good riddance to that shit company.
And a mild putting of my wife, who insists that she needs a landline in order to fax documents (healthcare insurance billing). In 2024, I say there is no reason that anyone needs to fax anything, and I suspect she is too lazy to figure out how to submit PDF documents and is just comfortable doing things the old way. Thus we have a VOIP landline for sending an occasional fax. Really?
Remember when I had one disappear back around Memorial Day, until I spotted him wandering around our apartment complex and lugged him home? There is still hope. Monkey knows where the food and treats and nip and love are. I’m firing up two cats and one dove for GYFBH* purrs/coos.
Is he chipped?
*Get Your Furry Butt Home
I don’t know if this is an October minirant or a November minirant, but what the hell, it bothered me today, (October 31), so it might as well go here.
So today, I get an e-mail telling me (not inviting me) that I’ve got to attend a Zoom meeting tomorrow (i.e. November 1). I know what the issue is, and it does need attending to, and honestly, the sooner the better. I will say that it’s definitely not personal, as there will be seven or eight other attendees to discuss the issue.
But holy hannah, Chair, how about a little more warning? I spent part of today rescheduling what I had on my plate for tomorrow. Thankfully, there was nothing I could not move—nothing like a court appearance, for example, just phone appointments and meetings that can be put off to next week—but still. It would have been nice if I didn’t have to lose part of my day today rescheduling my tomorrow.
HE CAME BACK Y’ALL!!!
Yes, Discource, it’s a complete goddamn sentence.
Huzzah!
Now to find a new doctor😢
Oh I’m SO glad! There is nothing like the worry over a cat gone missing or the inexpressible relief and joy when they reappear 