 wifi4milezBig Russ, 1918 to 2008. Rest in Peace
join:2004-08-07
New York, NY | POTS is necessary In my home I have two cell phones, 5 VoIP lines, and one POTS line. The reason I have the POTS is that I realize VoIP and cell service wont always work. Unfortunately, I had the experience of needing to dial 911 and without POTS things might have been very different. I love my VoIP, but if you care about your safety (or that of your loved ones) make sure you have a 'dial tone only' POTS line in your house. Also, dont let the FIOS techs convert your POTS line to fiber either, otherwise its not any better that VoIP.
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"You're Welcome"
-The United States of America and our Armed Forces-
Keeping the world safe since 1776
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 MattAll noise, no signal.Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
kudos:12
1 edit | said by wifi4milez:In my home I have two cell phones, 5 VoIP lines, and one POTS line. The reason I have the POTS is that I realize VoIP and cell service wont always work. Unfortunately, I had the experience of needing to dial 911 and without POTS things might have been very different. I love my VoIP, but if you care about your safety (or that of your loved ones) make sure you have a 'dial tone only' POTS line in your house. Also, dont let the FIOS techs convert your POTS line to fiber either, otherwise its not any better that VoIP. You don't need to pay for POTS. 911 service is required to work, even on POTS lines that don't have active service. Actually, even on my fiber (GPON) service, I can plug an analog phone into any outlet and dial 911 also.
And yes, fiber is MUCH different than VoIP. It's just the transport is similar. My ONT will disable the internet portion and go into a power-saving mode which only allows the phone side to work. I can get 2-3 days of usage out of it. In some cases, fiber may be more reliable than POTS, especially if you have an aerial drop from a pole, whereas fiber is buried. |
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wifi4milezBig Russ, 1918 to 2008. Rest in Peace
join:2004-08-07
New York, NY | said by Matt:You don't need to pay for POTS. 911 service is required to work, even on POTS lines that don't have active service. Actually, even on my fiber (GPON) service, I can plug an analog phone into any outlet and dial 911 also. That is correct, however there are times when you might need to call someone other than 911 during an emergency (family, childs school, etc.). For this reason its good to have the basic dial tone package.
said by Matt:And yes, fiber is MUCH different than VoIP. It's just the transport is similar. My ONT will disable the internet portion and go into a power-saving mode which only allows the phone side to work. I can get 2-3 days of usage out of it. In some cases, fiber may be more reliable than POTS, especially if you have an aerial drop from a pole, whereas fiber is buried. I am not implying that FIOS phone service is "like" VoIP. I am saying that just like VoIP, if there is a power outage you will very quickly be out of luck as FIOS only has a battery backup. Yes I know, they claim it will last up to 2 days but in reality a good old POTS line is MUCH more reliable. Look at what happened with the hurricane in Texas last year, those people had no power for many, many days. Bottom line is that you would need to be nuts to base your survival on a battery backup, so get POTS!
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"You're Welcome"
-The United States of America and our Armed Forces-
Keeping the world safe since 1776
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MattAll noise, no signal.Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
kudos:12 | said by wifi4milez:Bottom line is that you would need to be nuts to base your survival on a battery backup, so get POTS! Or a simple cell phone. Towers are much easier to replace and repair than COs and individual lines. Especially since cell towers are numerous. See Katrina for a perfect example of how the CO survived, but 750,000 people were without service because the individual lines from those COs were damaged: »www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9120503/
If you do a quick search on Google, folks who suffered through Katrina and the NYC blackout of 2003 said their cell phones worked when POTS didn't: »forums.cnet.com/5208-10152_102-0···D=264693 |
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 Killa200Premium
join:2005-12-02
Southeast TN | reply to wifi4milez
I'd say usually if you are losing power due to something like "the hurricane in Texas last year"... you prob have lost everything else attached to the poles that got taken out too... including pots.
Not every inch of your phone line is buried from the house to your CO, and murphy has a lovely way of playing the cards... |
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 nixenRockin' the BoxenPremium
join:2002-10-04
Alexandria, VA | reply to Matt
Don't even need a hurricane. A sufficiently vigorous thunderstorm, can lead to the same situation (and has, for me). We get plenty of violent thunderstorms around here, each year.
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The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. -- Bertrand Russell |
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 dsldude08Premium,VIP
join:2008-01-03
La Crosse, WI
kudos:2 | reply to Matt
Actually, that is incorrect. Not all companies do this nor are they required. If we left every single landline facility that was disconnected as a left-in facility then we wouldn't have enough facilities available all of the time. If the address is new, for example, someone builds a new home, and never calls the telco to hook them up, then nothing gets hooked up. So this is not a requirement, at least not for the company I work for. So I surely wouldn't rely on the fact that your telco "might" allow 911 without active service, and just go ahead and get the service. If your telco does allow it, then good. But no one should automatically assume this. If you do not hear a dialtone, the phone will not work, period. |
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WhatNowPremium
join:2009-05-06
Charlotte, NC | dsldude is correct the phone companies found if they leave all the connections when a customer disconnects service they can turn on new service sometimes while you are placing the service. The longer the service is disconnected the more likely parts of the line will be used on another circuit.
Here is news the major telcos are moving to VOIP because the equipment is cheaper both to purchase and operate. It may take years but that is the future. There will come a day when you will not be able to get traditional POTS service in some areas. I predict when the telcos lose enough POTS lines they will force the remaining POTS customers will be forced on to a VOIP system like in new neighborhoods with only FTTP.
In the old BellSouth region the newer neighborhoods and rural customers are on fiber to the node FTTN. If the power is lost to the site and a generator is not attached before the battery backup system is used up you lose the pots line just like having a cordless phone. |
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| reply to dsldude08
If there is a 911 rule it must be state specific because when I canceled my Qwest POTS lines they went dead and I still have naked DSL. |
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