Digital Telephone

[Bill51]

Finally, can you even get DSL without subscribing to phone service from your local provider?? DSL is on the phone line, if the line is not active, how do you send data on it???

In some locations you can get DSL from the telco without subscribing to phone service and all the taxes they collect for that.

 

[ScubaTexan]

I've got digital telephone service with Comcast and it's not all it's cut out to be. The reception borders on awful, sometimes, and it's not any cheaper than anyone else. I wish I had stayed with my former provider.

 

[chuckrt]

I tried digital phone thru time warner and found out they talk a good game but fall short. They told me I would be able to use my fax , used for home office, but it took 2 techs and 2 modems before they admitted that fax units were not compatible to digital service. I then checked with the service person that was fixing the copier at work and he also stated that the majority of faxes work on analog. Just another consideration to throw in the mix.

chuckrt

 

[Charlie99]

It is much cheaper, unlimited US & Canada for $34 p/m and insanely low rates for overseas. Sound quality is very good. The modem has a backup battery so you keep some phone service in a power out - we have two cellphones as well.

Are you really sure that your phone service will work during a power outage? Many hybrid fiber cable systems that feed the phone have repeaters or neighborhood nodes that rely upon the power grid and don't have backup power. Having a battery at just your house location doesn't cure that problem.

 

[Grajan]

It is quite possible that the switch from fiber to coax is dependant on local power. There is no way I'm going to get a sensible answer from TWC..... good thing we have (equally vulnerable) mobiles).

Are you really sure that your phone service will work during a power outage? Many hybrid fiber cable systems that feed the phone have repeaters or neighborhood nodes that rely upon the power grid and don't have backup power. Having a battery at just your house location doesn't cure that problem.

 

[mstudley]

I had phone service through my cable provider and dropped it recently in favor of VOIP (voice over IP). The service is much cheaper ($9.95 a month for 100 minutes outbound, unlimited inbound and no FCC taxes), good quality and if I wanted an unlimited service I could get it for roughly $20/month flat rate (ie. no taxes).

The caveat is that you need a broadband connection for this to work. I go through BroadVox for my VOIP and have internet access through my cable provider. As for power outages and such... well I do have a cell phone which works just fine in an emergency.

 

[RonFrank]

As someone who works for a telecommunications company, I can say that VOIP is the direction that the market is *currently* headed. Funny thing about markets, they change.

As someone who uses VOIP in the mountains, I have very mixed results. Most of the time it's fine, however sometimes the latency is so bad that the person on the other end can not even make me out. This has happened with me being at work talking with my wife.

Now, granted, I'm on a WIRELESS network, so it hops across the mtns before it hits a landbased line. And there is another issue. Networks can be a LOT of things. So judging one VOIP service against another is rather pointless as unless you are using the same carrier, the network topography is likely completely different.

The best advice I can give is to find someone in your area who is using it, and discuss their level of satisfaction.

Hi there!

I heard about digital telephone, oceanic cable is offering something - did a search and found a lot more, and I'm thinking of getting it. So I was wondering if anybody already has it (from any company) and if they are happy with it? Is it the great deal that it looks like it is and was the change worth it? or would you have rather stayed with your old provider?

 

[RonFrank]

Are you really sure that your phone service will work during a power outage? Many hybrid fiber cable systems that feed the phone have repeaters or neighborhood nodes that rely upon the power grid and don't have backup power. Having a battery at just your house location doesn't cure that problem.

Networks have repeaters. Most of the traffic in the world goes across them. These networks are largely owned and operated by the giants in the industry.

If they went down every time there was a local power outage, the communications industry would grind to a halt multiple times in a day.

A local call to a firestation for example may not hit a fiber network, but then again, if you live in any major city, it likely does.

However from a comsumer standpoint, it's not necessary to worry about if an outage can knock out communication beyond your house as it can, and there is little or nothing one can do.

If keeping a phone available at all times is critical, IMO have both a landline, and cellular service, and make sure you pay the bill

 

[scuba-sass]

I skimmed the responses, and only saw this mentioned once, briefly, so I think it bears repeating.

Check to be sure you will have 911 service!

You don't want to mess around with trying to find the number for your local police/fire/ambulance when someone is dying.

Good Luck!
Susan

 

[Charlie99]

Networks have repeaters. Most of the traffic in the world goes across them. These networks are largely owned and operated by the giants in the industry.

If they went down every time there was a local power outage, the communications industry would grind to a halt multiple times in a day.

We are talking about two different systems. You properly describe the sort of backups the Sonet/SDH/telecom world has. However, a hybrid fiber coax system, typically used by cable companies to provide cable and internet service is a quite different type of system. A star network of fiber replaces the old rigid coax main trunk. This improves TV channel quality and often lets the cable system expand to more channels. The optical star network fans out across the city and is converted back to electrical signals on the cable in neighborhood nodes that typically serve between 200 and 1000 customers. It's these fiber to cable nodes that are the weak link in the system. Often they are NOT backup powered. That's why you can lose cable service due to a blackout several blocks away.

BTW, if you have slow upstream cable modem performance during peak usage periods, the most likely cause is that there are too many users on your neighborhood node. All users share the same 5-42MHz upstream or reverse channel.