Zach 58Premium
join:2006-11-26
NW Minnesota | VZW Home Phone Connect Wife wants a "home phone" but our service with Qwest/Century Link was over-priced, unreliable crap when we had a normal land line. For $20 (before fees and un-fees) a month for unlimited Nationwide calling, Home Connect seems like a decent deal. If anyone here has this service, I'd like to know your experiences with it. We do have very good coverage out here in the middle of nowhere. As an aside, we have VZW 3G service for Internet connectivity so VoIP isn't an option as of yet. Thanks!!
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Zach |
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 Jack_in_VAPremium
join:2007-11-26
Mathews, VA
kudos:1 | Zach we've had Home Connect for maybe 4 months now. Works perfectly and our bill went from $49.99/mo to $19.99/mo. We have a Uniden wireless phone/answering system with 4 remotes that just plugs into the home connect unit. Same features except fax is not supported and caller ID is the same as on a cell phone since the service is wireless based. We kept our same number. |
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 nunyaWho is John Galt?Premium,MVM
join:2000-12-23
O Fallon, MO
kudos:8
 ·Charter
 ·surpasshosting
 ·voip.ms
| reply to Zach 58
I had something similar, except I used AT&T ($15 / mo + B.S. fees). It worked well for years. Slapped the SIM card in the Telular terminal and it worked fine.
Only dropped it because I went 100% VOIP for home and business.
This is probably the future of "POTS" service, since all the telcos are wanting to dump wireline.
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If someone refers to herself / himself as a "guru", they probably aren't. |
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| reply to Jack_in_VA
said by Jack_in_VA:Zach we've had Home Connect for maybe 4 months now. Works perfectly and our bill went from $49.99/mo to $19.99/mo. We have a Uniden wireless phone/answering system with 4 remotes that just plugs into the home connect unit. Same features except fax is not supported and caller ID is the same as on a cell phone since the service is wireless based. We kept our same number.
Same, but we've had it almost a year now. During the power outages last year, it eventually faded, but a land line would have been gone sooner. Took about three days for the battery to eventually die.
We are really happy with it, it was part of our bill reduction plan tha dropped about $90 a month in unneeded expenses. It works great... |
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 MsradellP.E.Premium
join:2008-12-25
Louisville, KY
 ·AT&T U-Verse
| said by KirkyInCT:During the power outages last year, it eventually faded, but a land line would have been gone sooner.
A traditional POTS line will never go out during a power outage. |
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| said by Msradell:A traditional POTS line will never go out during a power outage. Unless you're on a remote "mini-CO" in which case it'll go out with the power (or a few hours after if the mini-CO actually has functioning batteries).
/M |
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garys_2kPremium
join:2004-05-07
Farmington, MI Reviews:
·callwithus
·Callcentric
| reply to Msradell
said by Msradell:said by KirkyInCT:During the power outages last year, it eventually faded, but a land line would have been gone sooner.
A traditional POTS line will never go out during a power outage. For many of us those good old days are long gone. No longer do all the pairs necessarily go back to the C.O. where the banks of batteries and diesel generators stand ready to ride out a power failure. Many urban and suburban areas now terminate the copper in remote cabinets, digitize the signals and send them over fiber to the C.O. Those cabinets have backup power measured in hours. |
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 acadielPress fire to beginPremium
join:2002-06-22
61705
kudos:1 | reply to Zach 58
I have one I just exchanged for the AT&T version.... the AT&T version seemed to have a clearer less "warbly" sound.
If you still want the VZ version, let me know - I have a really good condition one I'm not using.. $25  |
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 alkizmo
join:2007-06-25
Pierrefonds, QC
kudos:1 | reply to Msradell
Nowadays with NOBODY using non-wireless phones for the landlines, even with traditional POTS working during a power outage, the wireless phones won't work 
Note: By wireless I don't mean cellphone (Just for the very young ones out here). |
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nunyaWho is John Galt?Premium,MVM
join:2000-12-23
O Fallon, MO
kudos:8 Reviews:
·Charter
·surpasshosting
·voip.ms
| reply to mackey
Depends on where you are at and who your LSP is. AT&T tried to keep RT's ready for 8 hours standby, though realistically most were at 6 +/- hours. After that, the generators would roll. I spent many nights shuffling power units around. I could do double duty because I had a special truck that could power most RT's as well.
From what I understand, the J1C182BA controllers were all replaced for an overcharging issue, and the new units require a much longer charge cycle which makes it extremely difficult to keep up given the high number of RTs and low numbers of generators and qualified technicians.
CEVs and anything with active cooling or pumps is a whole different story. Those have to be rode on almost immediately and babysat through the entirety.
In a widespread outage such as severe storms or hurricanes, you might as well forget about it.
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If someone refers to herself / himself as a "guru", they probably aren't. |
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 49528867Premium
join:2010-04-16
Fort Lauderdale, FL
kudos:3 | said by nunya:In a widespread outage such as severe storms or hurricanes, you might as well forget about it.
You have been out of the loop too long, in urban areas most RT's now have gensets sited and do not require the connection of external generators to remain in service.
Wayne
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Madness takes its toll, please have exact change ready… |
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Jack_in_VAPremium
join:2007-11-26
Mathews, VA
kudos:1 | reply to Msradell
said by Msradell:said by KirkyInCT:During the power outages last year, it eventually faded, but a land line would have been gone sooner.
A traditional POTS line will never go out during a power outage. I don't understand why people post things they cannot possibly know about.
A traditional POTS can and does go out. After hurricane Isabel here when the power was out for 17 days Verizon could not keep the batteries charged in their switches because the generators they were using were being stolen. We relied on a cell phone almost the entire time. Verizon has a big diesel gen set on my tower. |
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Jack_in_VAPremium
join:2007-11-26
Mathews, VA
kudos:1 | reply to alkizmo
said by alkizmo:Nowadays with NOBODY using non-wireless phones for the landlines, even with traditional POTS working during a power outage, the wireless phones won't work :p
Note: By wireless I don't mean cellphone (Just for the very young ones out here).
The wireless phones most certainly will work. They are after all stationary cell phones and as long as the tower is up and the battery charged in the unit or it's running on your generator everything works normally. |
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Jack_in_VAPremium
join:2007-11-26
Mathews, VA
kudos:1 | reply to 49528867
said by 49528867:said by nunya:In a widespread outage such as severe storms or hurricanes, you might as well forget about it.
You have been out of the loop too long, in urban areas most RT's now have gensets sited and do not require the connection of external generators to remain in service. Wayne Everyone does not live in an "Urban Area". |
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Reviews:
·AT&T U-Verse
| reply to Msradell
said by Msradell:said by KirkyInCT:During the power outages last year, it eventually faded, but a land line would have been gone sooner.
A traditional POTS line will never go out during a power outage. Unless the outage is caused by a branch falling on the wires...
Cellphones aren't vulnerable to brokrn wires. |
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Jack_in_VAPremium
join:2007-11-26
Mathews, VA
kudos:1 | reply to garys_2k
said by garys_2k:said by Msradell:said by KirkyInCT:During the power outages last year, it eventually faded, but a land line would have been gone sooner.
A traditional POTS line will never go out during a power outage. For many of us those good old days are long gone. No longer do all the pairs necessarily go back to the C.O. where the banks of batteries and diesel generators stand ready to ride out a power failure. Many urban and suburban areas now terminate the copper in remote cabinets, digitize the signals and send them over fiber to the C.O. Those cabinets have backup power measured in hours. That's the set up here. The pairs go to remote cabinets and digitized. When the batteries die it's all over for the land line. |
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49528867Premium
join:2010-04-16
Fort Lauderdale, FL
kudos:3 | reply to Jack_in_VA
said by Jack_in_VA:Everyone does not live in an "Urban Area". For them they have access to literally thousands of generators.
Within days after Wilma Bell South had over 1200 deployed in SFL and if I remember correctly the only RT's that didn't have one where the RT’s destroyed in the storm.
Wayne
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Madness takes its toll, please have exact change ready… |
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Jack_in_VAPremium
join:2007-11-26
Mathews, VA
kudos:1 | That's fine Wayne but what Bell South did and what other companies did could be completely different. It might be different for you next time depending on the severity of the damage.
Verizon tried but the thieves were also there. Result is no land line. |
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tberg
join:2001-08-23
Greenville, SC | reply to Zach 58
I changed over to VZW Home Connect in April. One big advantage is that to Verizon, it is a cell phone. So, when we were helping our daughter and son-in-law move a few thousand miles, I just ported the EIN over to a spare cell phone I owned and took my "home phone" with me.
Since my daughter uses Tracphone, this gave her an "unlimited" phone for all of her calls. Really helpful when moving.
Then when I got back home, I ported the EIN back to the Home Connect and had our home phone back. A side benefit was that I didn't come home to a full voicemail box.
And if I find at the end of the 2 year commitment (since this is just another cell phone on my plan at $10/mth), I can port my number (which I've had since 1992) over to Google Voice and do whatever I want with it. You can't port a landline number to Google Voice, only mobile numbers. |
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49528867Premium
join:2010-04-16
Fort Lauderdale, FL
kudos:3 | reply to Jack_in_VA
said by Jack_in_VA:It might be different for you next time depending on the severity of the damage. I am sure it will be, with the already sited generators in place, the time to deploying to outlying areas will be considerably reduced.
Verizon tried but the thieves were also there. Result is no land line.
Wayne
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Madness takes its toll, please have exact change ready… |
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