EGeezer
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 ·RoadRunner Cable
 ·AT&T CallVantage
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January 13th, @08:05PM
| What the POTS companies don't tell you
How well does POTS 911 work when the baddies cut the phone company lines? Around here they run the lines where anybody with a pair of dikes can whack them. The Demark is a plastic box at my house that anybody with a screwdriver can pop open. A lady's foot, hand drill and a hack saw can compromise the distribution boxes in the alleys and the plastic box at my property line is falling apart as I write this. Of course the POTS folks who worry so much about power failures didn't seem to care about that when I brought it up with my land line carrier. Having burglars or home invaders cut lines should be a very real concern to many people.
Don't count on the land line providers to solve problems quickly or cooperate with othervendors if you do have a problem. They'll stall, deny and finger point at anyplace from their demark out to you, which in some subdivisions and condos may cross several pieces controlled by several companies. It make take days or weeks just to get them to verify their own stuff. Then you also have to deal with everybody else along the line. Heaven only knows how many companies may be involved with bringing that POTS dial tone to your phone, but you can be sure none of them will talk to any others. With the one issue I had with VoIP voice quality early on, my ISP and ATT CV were very cooperative and worked together to solve the issue.
These are a few reasons why we have cell phones as well as VoIP and a land line. Our POTS has been down more times than my internet in the last five years. My longest ISP outage was 2 1/2 hours form outage to online. My longest landline outage was over three days from when I called. The local phone company balked and threatened to bill us even though we still had line guard service and a phone company owned phone. It took a day just to get them to schedule a service call, which ultimately proved to be bad connections in the box in the alley.
As for the VoIP service itself, I've never had VoIP out unless the ISP was down. Power was no problem as I have a UPS that'll hold the necessary equipment up for hours. My power outages have never outlasted my backup. IF my VoIP or ISP is down, my VoIP number automatically switches incoming calls to my cell phone (ATT CV Safe Forward). My land line service doesn't.
BTW I periodically test my 911 service. They have my address when I call from Land Line or VoIP and my general location from cell phone. At home, my cell will ring in to our 911 center.
I recommend periodic testing to all who may want to be sure their 911 service works. Just call your local 911 center's administrative number and ask them if you can test your phones. The folks at the 911 center here don't mind testing at all as long as people don't abuse it.
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