[SBE] Verizon says it will do away with traditional phone lines in7 years

[Stu Casteel]

aside from large explosions in the central office, cut trunks and local
backhoe & drunk driver outages about the only thing that will down a well
designed POTS system is someone dropping a tool on to the terminals of the
Battery Backup system (can you say vaporized?) or an earthquake where more
than half the phones are knocked off the hook (having experienced both)
I've been to more than a few cell sites and smaller cable operations,
well, lets just say their disaster recovery plans need work, many only
have short duration UPS - some have a generator but usually only a day or
two run time (assuming it auto starts) worth of fuel - even the most rural
telco's I've been to (New Effington anyone?) have a 24/7 manned central
office - how many cable companies can say the same?

every time there is any sort of local or regional disruption the stories
in the local papers (those that are left) run stories about folks who find
out the limitations of VoIP - not that I'm a luddite mind you, I've been
uing Skype since it was beta and, yah I've been using cell's since the
Miami Vice Moto brick daze

Think I'll keep a land line as long as they work, thank you very much -
just don't make anything but local calls on it

Stu




> I guess you can suppose what will be working in any given area during a

> disaster.  During the December 2007 ice storm (the worst we had in 40

> years) the only thing that worked at my house for more than two days was

> the land line telephone.  No power (except for what my generator was

> providing), no cable, no cell, no wireless of any kind and I live in the

> city.  The damage was something that had to be seen to be believed.  The

> wireless problems were in pockets and my house was in the middle of one

> of those pockets.  Many areas were without services for more than two

> weeks although the cell companies were getting it together within two

> days.  I believe in backup so I will keep my old reliable land line as a

> backup to the backup until they take it from me.  While I was not home

> much during that time my family was and it was a great comfort for them

> and me to be able to communicate while I was out on storm recovery.

> Richard Hardy

>

>   ----- Original Message -----

>   From: "John Peterson"

>   To: "sbe member discussion mail list"

>   Subject: Re: [SBE] Verizon says it will do away with traditional

>   phone lines in7 years

>   Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:25:47 -0600

>

>   I have wireless internet  and I depend on cell service for my

>   phone.... But old fashion land lines around here tend to be very

>   reliable. As for VoIP, QOS for some providers is not good and cell

>   service can be a problem during natural disasters.

>

>   John

>

>   On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 2:48 PM, <A9xw at cs.com> wrote:

>

>     I can report a power outage on my VoIP, two lap tops, and UPS on

>     main computers. Cell charger cords in every vehicle, (4) even on

>     my John Deere tractor. So who needs a land line?  Now if I could

>     get rid of the noisy power lines life would be perfect.

>

>     Henry

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