Sadly, your suggestion is rational and valid, but not likely to happen. The official "cost" of a copper pair is on the order of $25 to $50 per month, depending on the effectiveness of the lobbyists. "Wait?!", you say, "how is that possible if regular phone service is only sold for $15 per month?" Ah, you see they claim that they lose money on their service while simultaneously posting record profits. That is because business is horrible and/or great depending on whether legislators or shareholders are in the room. ILECs are not bound by the laws of the regular universe. But wild political machinations aside: operationally, using copper pairs cannot be used the way you described for ... reasons. John At 11:09 AM 7/21/2005, Austin McKinley wrote:
I Am Not a Telco Engineer, BUT: What if part of your monthly VoIP service included a stripped down, leased PSTN line from the carrier? Say, another 2 bucks a month.