大多数人似乎都忽视了这一点——但目前为固定电话供电的技术似乎将在2025年被关掉。

据说，为我们提供电话服务已有100多年历史的公用电话交换网(PSTN)是以19世纪的技术为基础，并通过铜线传送的。

上周，英国的固定电话运营商宣布，将把国内所有的家庭电话换成基于互联网的连接，而不是传统的铜线固定电话。共有14m条线路受到影响。

Openreach——组织实际上保持线路和电缆的基础设施(和现在这偶尔会修复错误!)声称,老系统的日子已经屈指可数了,他们已经开始工作运行电话线路的切换到通过互联网协议语音(VOIP),如缩放或Skype。

不要担心，尽管他们声称民众不应该恐慌，因为绝大多数使用英国电信、天空、维珍或其他服务提供商的客户，将能够无缝连接到他们的路由器，继续连接到全国的电话网络。

不过，说得有点圆滑，因为虽然“绝大多数人”可能能够使用超高速光纤服务，这将取代优良的旧铜线，但并非所有地方都可以使用。虽然98%的用户可能会简单地掏钱并接入光纤服务，但英国通信管理局的数据显示，2%的英国家庭无法接入“基本的”10mbps宽带连接。

Now, I might be wrong, but reading between the lines it looks like what they’re saying is that if you’re currently reliant solely on the old-fashioned copper cables to supply not only your phone line but your sub-standard broadband as well, without access to optic cables you’re kinda stuffed.

生活有点偏僻的,我没有想太长时间工作,客户像我这样住在一个非常古老的,很长,很薄的铜线可能进一步被边缘化当服务被切断在数年的时间。

“我们将在2025年12月31日，被关闭现有的模拟网络，每个人都在英国将需要在此之前有一个数字电话线路。为了帮助我们做好准备，我们也将停止在九月，2023卖模拟电话线到新客户，”啁啾Openreach部门，好像应该使所有的差异。

另一对夫妇的兴趣点的很好了,事实上,很多报警和监控系统依赖于旧系统转换后将不再运作——这一事实,不像老式的现状直接连接手机仍然工作在停电期间,允许紧急服务的接入得以维持，而VOIP则不行。

所以，我个人，想挂到电话的选项。

不过，冒着跑题的风险，我还听说了一个完全不相干的故事，一个智库提出了通过公共供水向农村地区提供宽带的想法。尽管看起来很疯狂，但他们显然在考虑在管道上铺设光缆——他们声称，这将使接入互联网像获取淡水一样简单。

虽然我不愿成为一个泼冷水的人，但我觉得应该有人向他们解释一下，很多农村家庭没有这样的供水渠道，而是依赖私人供水。也许全球网络会神奇地从全国各地的钻孔中萌芽。你可以说…希望永远。

无论如何，在过去的几周里，网络的重要性已经得到了充分的强调，虽然我决心不提它，以免给未来持续的丰收天气带来厄运，但这确实是一个伟大的时期。

But with all the crops ripening at the same time, there’s a been a real push to get things cut, sampled and off to the merchants as soon as possible in order to make sure there’s enough spare shed space to store the next field to be cut.

上周的一天，我估算到上午10点左右，通过电子邮件、短信、WhatsApp消息、电话和访问这家谷物商的在线门户网站，我已经发送或回复了多达50条信息。

这让我们清楚地意识到我们是多么依赖现代通信，虽然大部分通信是通过4G而不是固定电话进行的，但如果没有固定电话网络的备份，这种服务可能会相当不完善。

While I’m on a roll with ranting, though, I might as well point out that not a few of these calls were associated with the decision of our local council to close a three-mile stretch of road which serves several farms, including ours, for resurfacing work over the peak of harvest time.

On our own stretch, there are five farms hauling grain along this small C-class road, all with several outlying units, which means that at peak times there’s hardly a minute’s break in the flow of tractors and trailers running in both directions, with gateways and road-ends the only passing places even in normal circumstances.

此外，还需要移动联合收割机、头套和相关设备，以及打包机、稻草拖车——别忘了运送谷物的45吨铰接式卡车——在短短几周内，道路就像集市一样顺畅。

现在,我不知道珀斯和罗斯理事会的固定电话减少早期——同时落入一个神秘的4 g信号“不出”——但许多电话和邮件各级官员和部门参与这个疯狂的决定似乎充耳不闻。

对于每一个“手机似乎仍然没有答案，去到从未引起了答复，或者可能是最真气的是，chirpily宣布，该员工被关在度假两个星期语音邮件服务。

I’d have to say that our local MSP, Jim Fairlie, has been pretty good in backing our cause, our local councillor wasn’t as swift off the mark and when we did hear from him it was only to say that the closure couldn’t be postponed because he’d been told the wording of the agreement with the contractors actually carrying out the work meant that it would cost the council £100,000 to postpone, or cancel the work.

事实上，这项工作本来应该在今年5月进行，但后来被承包商推迟了，奇怪的是，似乎与这种情况没有任何关系。

Reassurances that agricultural traffic would still be allowed access haven’t cut any ice – because it’s not difficult to imagine how a surly team of roadworkers will react to having to up tools every 10 minutes to let tractors and combines through, especially as they’ll have to find some place to shift to let them past. I can only imagine the effect which running a few 45-tonne artics over newly laid tarmac will have on the overall finish of the road!

Though it's difficult enough in normal years to get a lorry in to haul the grain away just when you want it, by the time you factor in this year’s acute shortage of lorry drivers and the knock-on consequences which the collapse of Alexander Inglis' grain business has had on storage facilities, throwing in a closed road and obstreperous roadworkers ain’t gonna help the situation.

所以，尽可能的通信线路而言，切断我们的互联网会送我们回到20世纪失去了座机可能会看到我们回落到19 - 但之前没有道路上开车悬锤我们回罗马书。