AT&T/Direct TV to discontinue satellite use

tomman58 wrote:

bfast54 wrote:
Yeah and VINYL ( records)-it's going to be completely dead TOO !!!


You notice now it is making a resurgence???

Have not figured that one out yet. vinyl sucks for longevity.

I still have vinyl I bought in 1967; well cared for, played on good equipment, still sounds good.

bfast54 wrote:
Yeah and VINYL ( records)-it's going to be completely dead TOO !!!


You notice now it is making a resurgence???

Have not figured that one out yet. vinyl sucks for longevity.

Yeah and VINYL ( records)-it's going to be completely dead TOO !!!


You notice now it is making a resurgence???

I guess the rabbit ear antenna with the tin foil is pretty much gone ,eh. Along with free TV.
I wonder how those without a good job will be able to afford this new wonder.

I have a combined bill for internet, tv and 2 cell phones and pay $238.00 a month, heck that's more then my house payment used to be.

I remember a few years back when a Electric Grid Fuse blew out in some eastern state. It started a chain reaction and the whole east coast of the U.S. went down and had no electricity. The same sort of thing will happen with communications someday. It is all hooked together in a hap hazard sort of way with very few safe guards.

I'm not a Doomsday sort of person. The world will not end on that day. But, I do think that day will happen. We will all be inconvenienced and it will cost a lot of money but, it will not be the end of the world.

tegu69 wrote:
Congress and investigations, things getting better? Very optimistic.

I tried to put a nice spin on it. lol

Congress and investigations, things getting better? Very optimistic.

I still have a land line and rotary dial phone in my home that works just fine.

But,,,,, last year there was a blip in the cell phone service. A tower went down or something. Suddenly, my internet barely worked, my cell phone was dead,,, and much to my dismay, my land line would only work on very local service. I could call my brother 2 miles away but, not anyone more then 10 miles away.

(I didn't try it but, I wonder if 911 worked)

The different types of services are all so interconnected now that if one thing has a problem the whole thing crashes.

I don't think most people realize this or, are ready for it.

Mark My Words. Someday there will be a big crash and the stuff will hit the fan. Everyone will set around saying "how did this happen?" "Why didn't someone stop it?".

There will be big Congressional Committees doing lots of investigations that cost lots of money and things will only get slightly better.

It's inevitable !!!!!!!!

MrWizard wrote:
seems strange to me
didn't they launch a new satellite just a few years ago
good for ten yrs or more

DIRECTV Successfully Launches Two Satellites Significantly Increasing HD and 4K Capacity

It was just last year so it's just over 1 year old and is supposed to have a lifespan for at least 15 years. My understanding is that there is another launch scheduled within the next 2 years as well.

No way they are abandoning their satellite services in 3-5 years. Probably typical reporting that took liberties with printing "info" completely out of context of the original statements.

I'm an engineer, and I'm involved in test equipment design for high speed communications like 5G cellular, wifi, and other similar technologies. The over-the-air bands are extremely crowded in most frequencies that propagate well in free air, and there's a lot of consumer demand for faster cellular internet and things like self driving/connected cars and GPS/radar. The FCC is actively trying to get some of the spectrum back from things like over the air and satellite TV to re-license it for cellular use. One of the underlying technologies for newer standards like 5G is the ability to "handshake" with the base station and use multiple licensed bands to get more data through. Pushing as many customers as possible over to wired communcation like fiber optic and cable frees up the satellite bands for use in cellular-like wireless communication. There's a lot of money at stake here.