I have a landline + Internet broadband service, partly because some of the software I use needs a proper PC with a real keyboard, screen of decent size, and printer. A 'phone or a tablet would be no good for such applications.
I do have a "cell 'phone", called a "mobile phone" here - wrongly, because they are portable NOT mobile! Although it can nominally be linked to the Internet it would be practically useless because the screen is smaller than an ordinary playing-card; and I do not use that facility.
All my e-posts and many of my calls are over the wires, then; when possible making calls at night and weekends when they are "free". (I still need pay the rental, of course.)
Well my Jim wants to drop the landline and just get two cell phones. I DISLIKE CELL PHONES! AARRGGHH! Thank you for your informative reply Durdle. So your internet comes from broadband? What is that and how much does it cost? Happy Thursday to thee! :)
Broadband is the method by which the electronics work, allowing very high data-transmission rates, and using the telephone while the computer is actively on-line. It's possible for me to have both Answermug and another forum running at once, though that probably slows the computer a bit. Also, the higher-speed broadband speeds allow relaying music, films and television.
British Telecomm seems to advertise speeds of up to 100 Mb/s, but I am not sure if that is bits or bytes. A "bit" is the data's basic 1s and 0s, each 1 being a pulse of electricity rather like a Morse Code dot; a "byte" is a groups of 8 1 or 0 bits representing a single letter, numerical digit or other character. The "M" stands for "million", "/s" stands for "per second". The higher the speed the more you can pack into a single second of visible image on the screen, and the more continuous the transmission.
That's all very well physically near the servers and telephone-exchanges but it's usually a lot slower, and some parts of the country have very low broadband speeds, less than 10Mbs/s. The difficulty is that very long copper-wire phone lines slow the transmission speed, hampering the service in very rural areas. I think my service runs at about 12 to 18Mb/s, depending on traffic on the system generally.
The fastest rates are only possible with fibre-optical cable. Each bit is a tiny flash of light though fine filament of glass instead of a "dot" of electricity though a copper wire, but both last a fraction of a millionth of a second. For reasons of the physics I don't know, the light can pass along many miles of glass-fibre faster than its electrical equivalent in metal wires.
So the data bytes of this conversation are racing across the Atlantic sea-floor, by fibre-optics, at the speed of light in glass. There is a slight delay within the electronics at each end, and when they become converted to electrical signals for the last stages of their journey through ordinary wire.
Incidentally, "data" itself is plural. It is "data are" , not "data is".
To be honest I don't how much it costs me, but the fee is line rental plus call / internet. A phone-only bundle is cheaper but would not suit me - in any case, what it costs me probably won't help you in a different country with different companies and tax regimes.
[Edited to correct typos.]
This post was edited by Durdle at January 10, 2020 6:52 AM MST
I start with your "incidentally". My source is the Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language. Under the 3. definition of data "used with a singular verb, a body of facts/information. DATA is used in English BOTH as a PLURAL NOUN meaning "facts or pieces of information" and as a SINGULAR MASS NOUN meaning "information". So whether you say data are or data is you are correct. According to my source. Yours may be different. I can only go by what is available to me. My dictionary was published in 2001 and though we both speak English we are not living in the same country so our word usage may be from a different perspective. I have given you this exhaustive reply simply because I had the information available. I try to use words correctly. I play with them and pretzelize them upon my whims. I make words up when I want to do so. English..my version of it...is alive and well and breathing. It isn't dead and buried and rigid and stiff.
Now getting to my question. Thank you for your informative reply and Happy Friday Durdle.
This post was edited by RosieG at January 10, 2020 7:03 AM MST
I have cellphones. Internet is through the cable company. We have unlimited gigs on it. I pay $220 for cable/dvr/high speed internet. (I do not know the breakdown for each service) I do have Vonage Home phone (internet phone) but it serves as a message service. And a number to give to people I do not want to have my number. ($17/month)
That is very helpful m2c. Thank you for the info. Our internet is through our phone line. The TV/DVR are separate. I don't want any bundling. One thing goes out everything goes out. A TV guy told me that once upon a time. AVOID BUNDLING. Happy Friday to thee m2c! :)
If electric goes out, everything goes out execpt a landline phone. (Cell is good until battery dies) Internet would go because no electric to router. I have had cable internet for years. No problems.
If you really want a different company for internet satellite companies offer internet as well.
I got rid of the landline phone years ago when my kids were teenagers - and ran up a four figure phone bill in a single quarter (calls to mobiles from a fixed service were charged extortionately, and teenagers talk for hours). It's been cell only for more than a decade. Internet used to come through a naked ADSL service (running an internet-only signal through a phone line, no voice) until the National Broadband Network became available. Now we get it through that. The NBN is a complete dog's breakfast, but it's better than nothing.
Durdle 