rekees4300
Elite Member
I keep the landline because it works when the power fails and for enhanced 911. Don't use it much, it's basically a $35/mo. insurance policy. 10 hilly miles to the nearest cell phone tower so they are unreliable.
End of the traditional (POTS) phone system ?
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I keep the landline because it works when the power fails and for enhanced 911. Don't use it much, it's basically a $35/mo. insurance policy. 10 hilly miles to the nearest cell phone tower so they are unreliable.
RF triangulation used for E911 can work well, but it is still less accurate and reliable than a landline. Even at the 300m spec, that can leave a large search area - if it's a single car crash in the middle of a field, easy to find. A cluster of buildings, with a now passed out 911 caller... you can end up burning time crashing through doors into empty buildings. I'm on a tight budget, but for $22/mo, I'm keeping my landline.
A VOIP incident I was thinking about happened a few years ago. A couple moved from the Toronto area to Western Canada, but didn't update their physical address with their provider - shortly after getting out west, they needed to make a emergency call using their VOIP. The ambulance was dispatched to their old address in Ontario, with a fatality the end result.
I understand a bit about the heavy engineering and reliability that was designed into the old POTS network. A lot of people don't know what was there, so they aren't going to miss it... time moves on.....
Rgds, D.
therealmjfox
Member
For rural folk, that's probably enough. I know because I once butt-dialed 911 on my Blackberry(*) while sitting in my living room. I never knew I had called it until the Sheriff's deputy was in my driveway. When people are on acreage they can figure out the address with a pretty rough triangulation, apparently.
(*) if you're wondering how that could happen... when the screen was locked on the old Blackberrys there were two buttons available, one for unlock and one for emergency call. So if your blackberry was screen locked you had a pretty good chance of butt-dialing 911. The deputy knew immediately what had happened when I showed him my phone, it wasn't that uncommon an occurrence, apparently. I apologized for wasting his time and he went on his way.
dave1949
Super Star Member
When the utility power is out, so is the local cable system and our VOIP service. They are dependent on utility power. That's my easy way of knowing when utility power is restored, the lights on my cable modem look normal again. :laughing:
Anyhoo, running a generator for house power won't overcome that. We don't worry about it. Assuming one of us could drive, we can go to a point where cell reception is possible and make calls if we had to.
Anyhoo, running a generator for house power won't overcome that. We don't worry about it. Assuming one of us could drive, we can go to a point where cell reception is possible and make calls if we had to.
therealmjfox
Member
The cell network relies on power as well, but they usually have backup batteries at the sites that keep them running for a while... not indefinitely during long power outages though. I think the same limitation applies to the landline network, however.
Depends on the cable company.... they did some upgrades on the major distribution nodes here a few years back. Here cable will stay up, w/o electric mains running - I haven't seen it out long enough to determine their battery runtime - guessing a day at least.
Rgds, D.
dave1949
Super Star Member
This is our cable provider; Bee Line Cable Co.
Good people, small outfit, interesting history.
Bee Line Cable - Digital Cable, High Speed Internet, Digital Phone - Maine
Good people, small outfit, interesting history.
Bee Line Cable - Digital Cable, High Speed Internet, Digital Phone - Maine
To support landlines for POTS, the COs (Central Offices) were designed with very substantial battery banks - typically with days of reserve w/o utility line power.
The Wikipedia entry for POTS sums it up well....
Reliability:
While POTS provides limited features, low bandwidth, and no mobile capabilities, it provides greater reliability than other telephony systems (mobile phone, VoIP, etc.). Many telephone service providers attempt to achieve dial-tone availability more than 99.999% of the time the telephone is taken off-hook. This is an often cited benchmark in marketing and systems-engineering comparisons, called the "five nines" reliability standard. It is equivalent to having a dial-tone available for all but about five minutes each year.
Once this is gone, we aren't likely to see this level of over-engineering again.
Rgds, D.
Nice to deal with someone local like that.
I used to have a number of Bell services, but gave up most - partly because I gave up on TV content, and partly because dealing with their admin and marketing depts was a major exercise in frustration.
Rgds, D.
JDgreen227
Super Member
Was thinking about starting a thread on this topic because here in Michigan the worthless, pandering Legislature has passed a bill that will enable providers to begin phasing out landlines in 2017. I pay an obscene $83 a month for a landline and so called "high speed internet" (1.52 mbps download max) AND I DON'T EVEN MAKE VOICE CALLS ON THE LANDLINE (hearing loss). So, I am basically paying ONLY for Internet access and because the provider (Frontier) blatantly lied to me, I got suckered into a two year contract.
What I want to understand is just how I am supposed to get internet access here when and if my landline is taken out...although I have an Android cell that I use for texting, most days I am lucky to get 1 1/2 bars of service which is almost worthless.
What I want to understand is just how I am supposed to get internet access here when and if my landline is taken out...although I have an Android cell that I use for texting, most days I am lucky to get 1 1/2 bars of service which is almost worthless.