People think this is weird, and it is. But it’s also a huge scare for old people that only have a landline. In really remote areas that only have copper service with ancient technology, that’s their only lifeline. And some lowlife dicks actually use these kinds of things to scam old people. I dealt with the public utilities folks in northern New England and this stuff happens. The phone line infrastructure in the remote areas is beyond ancient. Shitty monopoly phone companies take over for one another and just gouge people for shitty service. Fairpoint and Consolidated Communications are two recent ones that do this. Rates raise and service never improves. Any time it rains thousands of people have issues with noise on the line or no service at all.