What about utilities? :)
Do you live in a nice residential neighborhood? What if your next door neighbor retired from his job and wanted to open an abatoir in his lot?
You have a lot in common with Libertarians. That's why most? people categorize libertarians as one of the 3 or 4 major subsets of conservatives.
Although there are some big differences on other points. (But with 20 or 50 issues, we'd need hundreds of thousand of categories if every set of ideas had its own category.)
Seems to be a diffrence between digital phone and VOIP By using known VoIP services you are using your current internet connection to place a call over the internet using the internet signal/bandwidth to transmit your call. This in turn can cause call quality issues such as echo, crackling and voice hesitations. With MetroCast Digital Phone service, your phone conversations will not be impacted by applications which require the internet. By using a standard known as Quality of Service (QOS) in the telecom industry, MetroCast is able to provide you with reliable and quality Digital telephone service.
In most places now, you can reach them and they get the caller ID same a dial tone. This is from our local cable company Safety and security is top priority and with Digital Phone service, you are provided enhanced 911 service which sends your telephone number and address information to a local 911 dispatcher if 911 is dialed from your home. If there is a power outage, MetroCast Digital phone service and E911 access will still be available due to a battery back up in the modem which is installed in your home. Please keep in mind that cordless phones which plug into an electrical outlet will not function during a power outage. Be sure to have at least one corded phone in your home in case of a power outage.
*If there is a network outage or a downed cable line in your area, Digital Phone service and E911 service may be interrupted until the necessary repairs can be made. This is the same with your current telephone provider today if your telephone drop was to be compromised in any way or there was a system related problem in your provider's network.I'll wait until it is actually here to decide, but I pay a lot for overall phone service. Sure, the $99 is a come on, but I know one guy that is saving about $75 a month on his phone with intrastate long distance charges. That will vary, as does cable services selected etc. I won't consider a change for $10 a month, but certainly will for $50+.
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Not understanding what this has to do with the discussion. Lets say you have FiOS in an apartment you own and across town you have another apartment with cable carrying TV/data/phone the same as FiOS. When someone moves in it is up to them to decide what if anything they wish to purchase. In either case they could get phone or TV or data or
*nothing*.
I agreed it cost more for them to install.
It's like
The VOIP guys claim that QOS fixes everything and makes it peechy keen. It appears that today VOIP is much better than it was in say
2000. But in my experiences in talking with people who have it, it still is not as reliable or of consistent voice quality that you get with a landline.Yes, the failure to work with 911 was a big problem until a couple of years ago. My understanding also is that in most cases, it has now been fixed and does work. But, I'm sure there are still some systems/ areas where it does not.
How much, if anything VOIP saves you depends on what services you have and how you use them. If all you have is basic local service with the phone company, make few long distance or intrastate toll calls, etc, then there may not be much benefit to switching. It might actually cost more in some cases, especially if the only service you get is VOIP.
On the other hand, if you have some features like caller ID, call waiting, call forwarding, etc, and make a lot of toll calls, then it can save you quite a bit. The cable guys package it with their other services, cable TV, internet. When you look at the package pricing, which makes sense for a lot of people today, then the pricing generally looks good compared to the phone company.
Kinda sorta. The way it works is that the software gives you the ability to say where you are and then it will route it to the (hopefully) correct 911 center. The problems include what happens if you are somewhere other than home and forget to change your location (a small but rather interesting subgroup). I haven't checked in the last year or so, but last I did, it also did not include address information in those areas that have enhanced 911. If you pass out or otherwise can't communicate then they can't easily know where to send the help. That may have changed recently.
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Would say your friend is smart!
But; not only doing away with all copper lines!
Electricity! I'm all for 'living better electrically' as they used to advertise some 40+ years ago. And when we built this house in 1970 we did go 'All electric'.
One big advantage, still today, of POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) over copper wire from the telephone building or cabinet is that it does not depend on modems, computers or electric power at your premises! The small amount of electricity required to operate the phone comes over those two thin copper wires.
The one and only time, for example, we have lost our phone service here in over 40+ years (telephone plant is 95% overhead construction) was when a drop wire to our house was damaged. With no digging the telephone repair was fast and efficient, taking less than four hours, out of service. Even recently our neighbour had loss of service due to a cable pair fault; it was fixed next day. Many thanks to Aliant Telecom, an Atlantic Canadian subsidiary of Bell Canada. Also see note:
Traditional telephone companies typically (those still using say ATT/ Bell System standards) provide battery power back-up at their locations; along the lines of a minimum of 8 busy hours (if they have diesel generators) and 24 hour back-up, if ability to plug in an external generator. These phone lines are often your only way of reaching 911 etc. when we have those very infrequent power failures.
However the traditional telephone companies have been under intense competition to cut costs by the newer companies who may not have that history/tradition of service and who may be providing your TV cable/ internet and other 'added' services from cabinets mounted along the street. Some of those systems use only AC power or at most have small batteries in each cabinet which will only last a few hours at best. With small decentralized battery installation it is cheaper to provide service but there is less chance of recharging them until power is restored to a whole area.
For example we have lost our cable TV service a few times even though the electricity was still working on our street, because the power was off at a cable TV cabinet several streets over! Glad we didn't get our telephone service from them!
To see how you might fare personally during a power failure, turn off your main circuit breaker and see which services (including some of your phones?) are affected/lose service!
Note: Many of the more sophisticated phones (Call display, automatic dial, message answering etc.) depend on being plugged into a standard wall outlet. Some do have battery back up for any numbers stored, others do not or the protective battery has long ago deterioriated. In most cases that memory back-up battery does NOT operate the phone itself.
IT IS THEREFORE A GOOD IDEA to have one very simple phone THAT DOES NOT DEPEND ON ELECTRCITY TO OPERATE. In fact we have an older rotary dial wall phone, which fascinantes a grandson who has never seen any phone that doesn't have buttons! I must show him a magneto crank phone one f these days!
BTW; if telephone service is essential; have a cell/mobile phone as well; and keep it charged up! Especially during storms. But be prepared for delays if/when a power failure occurs; there are not an infinite number of channels at each cell/mobile site. A satellite phone will also work, provided it is also charged up. But understand minutes are expensive; which however may not be a concern during an emergency.
SO: As long as the commercial AC in your area is reliable (to your home) and the service providers have reasonable power back-up provisioning policies we should be alright say 95% plus of the time.
But it's when that elderly relative has a stroke, and/or you are trying get to a hospital or dial though to an emergency service, with street and traffic lights not working due to power outages that one realises that you can't take anything for granted!
This is not really a problem. They only have to reposition the satellite, use both optical and thermal sensing, and do a Graham projection of the area around the signal. Then they run a Gresham algorithm to enhance the projection, run a Peterson progression to align this with the topographic databases to allow for elevation and triangulation, and then they just send an ambulance to the person lying next to the laptop.
Yes, I guess the procedure above is recent. I've been so deeply involved it seems like decades.
I have FIOS. the ONT which convers the optical cable to standard DSL like is outside on side of house.
The power supply is in the basement with a built in UPS that only keeps the phone service working but you can plug this unit into a larger UPS if you want, Doing so will keep the internet part working too during a outage.
I have mixed feeling about FIOS the internet part works awesome HOWEVER the phone side is much less reliable than copper and worse the reps really dont care. We had SEVERE troubles and it took over a month to get it fixed, the last 2 weeks I called daily and the trouble effected the entire central office.
I will likely go VOIP it cant be any worse:(
during a real emergency cell service for most will automatically quit working while first responders will still work.
duriung such a emergency 911 calls still function
Only up to a point. True, the 'first responder' programmed phones will not pre-empt 911 calls like they do normal calls, but the system simply doesn't have the capacity for every cell user to make a call at once. Neither does the hardwired land-line system (which is still involved in most cell connections), or the 911 switches and consoles, or the pipe from them to the telco, which is a choke point for both types of calls. In any major disaster, voice service at a minimum bogs down, and ofter goes out entirely for hours or days. They did note, during the recent unpleasantness down south a couple years ago, that text service often holds out longer than voice service. Less bandwidth needed, and (I suspect), people simply don't think to use it. When people are upset or panicked, they want to hear a human voice telling them things will be all right.
aem sends....
My brother has a lot of money** but not everyone does. The rest have to try not to spend too much.
**One reason my brother has a lot of money is that he doesn't buy everything that is for sale. Aside from travel and restaurants, he doesn't spend much more than our father did.If you get Fios and you let them take out your copper, or they do it without telilng you, the person who moves in doesn't get to decide what to purchase. For a phone line, he has to get cable or fios.
That certa>>>> As a subscriber you buy a service. If you buy dial t>>> Doesn't it cost a lot more >>Sure,
I said:
So, who pays the much higher installation charge?
And, doesn't it cost more for Fios monthly than what they are charging me now?
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Do you have any experience with how long the FIOS battery backup lasts? Verizon says it lasts "up to 8 hours". But it's unclear if that means 8 hours without any phone calls, with some phone calls, or
8 hours of talk time. I'm guessing it probably means 8 hours with very little use.
That makes sense, because if it lasted for 8 hours of talking, they'd probably say it lasted up to 24 hours.
Somewhat similar is that in the last 30 years almost everyone has started saying that if something goes from 100 to 400 that it is 4 times greater, when it is only 3 times greater and 4 times as great.
Also, "up to" specifies no lower limit, so 10 milliseconds still counts as "up to" 24 hours.
A very common problem, which I hear often. Because of that I get suspicious whenever I hear sometinng like "__ times __er than __" (as in 3 times bigger, 4 times longer, etc...).
There's also "this bulb uses 200% less electricity than normal bulbs". What is that supposed to mean?
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Unless they are doing a complete change-out, the rooms change very little. There is a massive amount of copper busswork that has to be moved/ reconfigured.
Switch-mode rectifiers offer more bells and whistles, but the old ferros are built like a tank and have been known to survive lightning.
Some COs are unmanned. Those that are have significant remote monitoring instead, sometimes including video.
Depends on load.
Some COs have no generators. Critical sites can have multiple gen sets.
It may be haz mat, but the old wet cells are can provide 20+ years of service. By the way, the VRLA (Valve Regulated Lead Acid) batteries used in many cell sites & remotes contain the same hazardous chemicals.
FIOS CO are unmanned serviced by roving groups of techs
I believe the battery backup is good for a hour or two tops of continious talk time, and the internet part dies immediately when power fails.
The latest from Verizon, if you dont have a phone line as part of the fios line pay over 10 bucks a month more.......
got the letter today......
The use a 12V 7Ah battery for back up. When the battery is new one should get about 84 Whr of power. Depending upon what load it will last differently. When the battery gets older obviously it goest down.
If they don't know arithmetic, or they don't know English, how good could they be anyhow?
I guess you get to sell it back to the grid. Gotta get me some of those.
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