Posted on 08/17/2009 1:21:30 AM PDT by Schnucki
Verizon saw this problem coming a long way off (strangely, since it *is* Verizon) and started their FIOS project both to provide added value that people would pay for at home and to reduce their costs as they had to replace their copper plant.
The current guy in charge of GM was in charge of SBC/AT&T when Verizon started their fiber charge and decided that he was going to have none of that, only roll out slow DSL, well, slowly. And maybe bundle satellite TV in. Among other stupid decisions.
AT&T is now more than a decade behind Verizon in rolling out their FIOS equivalent.
A few months back I was able to get Cable phone service, plus high speed internet, plus digital Cable, for about $45 more a month than a traditional telephone line. So now Comcast is my phone company, with my cellphone as backup for when it goes out, as it does!
We have High speed DSL and basic cable for 29 bucks/month. (comcast)
It's going to be an uphill battle retiring those Blackberries, though. :(
What happens to Fios, Cable, VoIP, and all the other wireline replacements (and their battery chargers) when the power goes off for a few hours or more?
The last time I had this problem, my power was off for two days due to a bad storm. No computer, no TV, no lights, no cable, no nothing, but my low-tech wireline phone kept working the whole time.
I wonder how DirectTV and Dish Network handle this?
You have to plug a landline phone into the back of each receiver...or at least you used to?
It was to prove that the box was at your address and not another and also to handle billing for Pay-Per-View.
We plug the cellphones into the car chargers. They often come with the cellphone, free.
Our Sat boxes aren’t plugged in anymore - I think you still need to if you are buying Pay-Per-View but I believe you can buy them on the net and don’t need to.
The first things to crash during a hurricane are electricity, cable and cell phones but phone land lines have been reliable during even the worst storms. That’s why, down here on the Space Coast, I’m keeping mine.
Cell phone service downtime statistics are considered a matter of national security and are not available to the public, not even via FOIA requests.
http://redtape.msnbc.com/2006/12/why_cell_phone_.html
Yup. That’s what makes the service unavailable to John Q. Citizen. During the 2004-05 hurricanes, power, cable and cell service was out for over a week but my land line worked fine.
I’ve said elsewhere that the telemarketers have essentially destroyed the usefulness of one of man’s greatest technological achievements.
Yes mobile phones were always the next logical step but just imagine if everyone removed the front door to their homes - this is what telemarketing has reduced us to - distrust of any caller, the ubiquity of Caller ID and a ‘conversation’ consisting of reciprocal voice mails and follow-up calls via - you guessed it - mobile phone.
Those of us who want to see government intervention minimized don’t want more telemarketing laws - the existing ones are toothless anyway (by design) and an army of chancers have long ago figured out ways to get around them. Unfortunately the free market apparently provides enough incentive for telemarketers to stay in business courtesy of enough idiots scattered across the land who actually engage in commerce with these snake oilers.
The only reason pollsters continue to rely on landline polls is money. If they are too cheap to obtain valid measurements via shoe leather then their results are therefore invalid. They can hedge their bets with margins of errors but the fact remains that anyone responding to a poll picked the phone up in the first place and agreed to share their most personal views with a complete stranger. The margin of error in any poll is probably 10% or more.
Hmmm...
Try living in a dead zone. All it takes is a hilly, rocky terrain and a bunch of NIMBYs who don’t want to see towers ANYwhere to make huge dead zones.
Still stuck with a land-line...
P.
And, if the cell towers have no power....?
I think a landline is 5 or 6 volts, which is enough to power LEDs and even recharge a cell phone, if you rig it correctly (hey, that may be the definition of irony right there).
Question: If I do not subscribe to a landline service, will the phone company know I hacked into their box and am stealing their 5 volts?
Never seen that happen, myself. We lose our power about every month, but it seems to be localized.
Unmentioned is business phone use. The telephone is not much used. E mail is the com line. I deal with many young women who don’t answer their phones. You want to communicate with them it is e mail or nothing.
When you call 911 on your land line it dosnt matter if you become unconscious or if the intruder takes away your phone. the 911 people have your address. The cell phone wont do that for you.
IMO the phone company slid downhill when they stopped having a real person you can talk to. When I dial up with a problem , I dont want a message, I dont want to push buttons, I want to speak to a real person.
That's funny. We fired our cable system (comcast) for the exact same reason. Switched to Dish network and never looked back.
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