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Telcos Must Implement New SHAKEN/STIR Protocol By 6/30/2021; Using COVID-19 To Celebrate Death Of Net Neutrality; + more
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Ostracus
join:2011-09-05
Henderson, KY

-3 recommendations

Ostracus

Member

The best VoIP services for 2020.

quote:
Voice over Internet Protocol is a popular alternative to landlines, especially in the business world. VoIP is more affordable and allows you to make long-distance phone calls at a fraction of the cost. A lot of businesses opt for VoIP because of the video conferencing and faxing features.
Power's out, you're out. Plus no collect calls. I also noticed voip.ms isn't on the list even though they have the business features.

SimbaSeven
I Void Warranties
join:2003-03-24
Billings, MT
·StarLink

4 recommendations

SimbaSeven

Member

Re: The best VoIP services for 2020.

said by Ostracus:

Power's out, you're out. Plus no collect calls. I also noticed voip.ms isn't on the list even though they have the business features.

So? Get yourself a small UPS. The providers equipment at the node typically comes with a fairly decent-sized UPS and/or generator to keep things alive.
Ostracus
join:2011-09-05
Henderson, KY

1 recommendation

Ostracus

Member

Re: The best VoIP services for 2020.

Sorry Simba7 but this is one of those times your wrong. And I bet if I polled Spectrum customers on DSLReports about the last couple days in this particular county they'd back me. Every time there's been a power outage internet goes down and I've had a UPS for years. Recently we've had a tornado go through and the only thing that was up was cellular. And a couple years back when we had an ice storm even that was out. So POTS was up all the way through.

SimbaSeven
I Void Warranties
join:2003-03-24
Billings, MT
·StarLink

SimbaSeven

Member

Re: The best VoIP services for 2020.

said by Anon0218a :

Not true at all. CHTR doesn't power the nodes when power is out.

said by Ostracus:

Sorry Simba7 but this is one of those times your wrong. And I bet if I polled Spectrum customers on DSLReports about the last couple days in this particular county they'd back me. Every time there's been a power outage internet goes down and I've had a UPS for years. Recently we've had a tornado go through and the only thing that was up was cellular. And a couple years back when we had an ice storm even that was out. So POTS was up all the way through.

Ok. So, Charter doesn't. There are several that do. Did I specifically point out Charter/Spectrum? No.
Ostracus
join:2011-09-05
Henderson, KY

Ostracus

Member

Re: The best VoIP services for 2020.

said by SimbaSeven:

Did I specifically point out Charter/Spectrum? No.

Implicitly you did. By giving me specific advise on getting a UPS. "Typically" was for everyone else.

SimbaSeven
I Void Warranties
join:2003-03-24
Billings, MT
·StarLink

SimbaSeven

Member

Re: The best VoIP services for 2020.

said by SimbaSeven:

said by Ostracus:

Power's out, you're out. Plus no collect calls. I also noticed voip.ms isn't on the list even though they have the business features.

So? Get yourself a small UPS. The providers equipment at the node typically comes with a fairly decent-sized UPS and/or generator to keep things alive.

said by Ostracus:

Implicitly you did. By giving me specific advise on getting a UPS. "Typically" was for everyone else.

Actually, I didn't. This is ALL equipment in general. Telephone lines aren't powered by unicorn farts or fairy dust. It's powered just like any wired line is. Some devices come with built-in battery packs in case the power goes out and you can still make phone calls. The nodes themselves have built-in UPS devices and Generators to keep the network alive and the lines actively powered. Once they're depleted, you're losing service. Doesn't matter if it's Twisted Pair, Coax, Fiber, etc.

antdude
Matrix Ant
Premium Member
join:2001-03-25
US

antdude to Ostracus

Premium Member

to Ostracus
said by Ostracus:

Sorry Simba7 but this is one of those times your wrong. And I bet if I polled Spectrum customers on DSLReports about the last couple days in this particular county they'd back me. Every time there's been a power outage internet goes down and I've had a UPS for years. Recently we've had a tornado go through and the only thing that was up was cellular. And a couple years back when we had an ice storm even that was out. So POTS was up all the way through.

Same for TV and its phone services in my TWC and Spectrum cable areas. TWC even snail mailed its letters about having no phone services during power outages since they don't supply power on their own lines!

tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA

tshirt to Ostracus

Premium Member

to Ostracus
and the big difference in the price is are you paying THEM to provide a more complex, but more durable system. or are YOU taking responsibility for a backup system.
Ma Bell was about as hardened as a residential system could be, it also was as/more expensive then the market would bear. and still failed some times, but the really tried to be 5-9's service.
VoIP varies from best-ish effort to good luck in quality.

Anon95257
@73.57.53.x

1 recommendation

Anon95257

Anon

Re: The best VoIP services for 2020.

said by tshirt:

and the big difference in the price is are you paying THEM to provide a more complex, but more durable system. or are YOU taking responsibility for a backup system.
Ma Bell was about as hardened as a residential system could be, it also was as/more expensive then the market would bear. and still failed some times, but the really tried to be 5-9's service.
VoIP varies from best-ish effort to good luck in quality.

Good old POTS was indeed very robust and reliable. But it is, at least in our area, dead. With ATT and Comcast you also get VoIP only. Yes, it's a dedicated line and all of that, but still vulnerable.
I use three different VoIP providers. Our power lines are underground. It happens once a while that I do not have phone service due to internet or power issues , but it's very rare.With a cell phone and additional PAYGO prepaid from a different provider it so far has not happened, not even after hurricane, that i did not have some type of service.
VoIP offers excellent features for a minimal price.
That article is a complete joke, they did not even rate the best VoIP companies.

SysOp
join:2001-04-18
Atlanta, GA

4 edits

-13 recommendations

SysOp

Member

Comcast waiving data caps hasn?t hurt its network?why not make it permanent?

Sure, if Comcast only had 1 speed tier. Bandwidth is a limited resource just like electricity during summer peak demand or water during a drought.

It's fair that once you hit your cap, you may continue at a higher priced tier or be subjected to network management so that other users have equal access.
eric89074
join:2017-01-25
Las Vegas, NV

5 recommendations

eric89074

Member

Re: Comcast waiving data caps hasn?t hurt its network?why not make it permanent?

I have Cox for cable service and there have been zero issues since they waived data overage charges. Overage charges have been exposed as a cash grab to make up for lost TV revenue.

djrobx
Premium Member
join:2000-05-31
Reno, NV

8 recommendations

djrobx

Premium Member

Re: Comcast waiving data caps hasn?t hurt its network?why not make it permanent?

Spectrum is a large cable provider that's managed fine without caps. We didn't need COVID-19 to expose that caps are purely about increasing profits.

cork1958
Cork
Premium Member
join:2000-02-26

cork1958

Premium Member

Re: Comcast waiving data caps hasn?t hurt its network?why not make it permanent?

said by djrobx:

Spectrum is a large cable provider that's managed fine without caps. We didn't need COVID-19 to expose that caps are purely about increasing profits.

Although Charter never really enforced caps back a few years ago before they bought TW, they did have caps. Personally, when their 7 year agreement to not impose caps is over, I can't imagine them not reinstating caps and enforcing them. It's just to easy of a cash grab for them not to. Same with modem leases. I don't see them handing out modems for free, even if they say it's included in bill, forever either.

Anone921e
@47.13.107.x

Anone921e

Anon

Re: Comcast waiving data caps hasn?t hurt its network?why not make it permanent?

said by cork1958:

said by djrobx:

Spectrum is a large cable provider that's managed fine without caps. We didn't need COVID-19 to expose that caps are purely about increasing profits.

Although Charter never really enforced caps back a few years ago before they bought TW, they did have caps. Personally, when their 7 year agreement to not impose caps is over, I can't imagine them not reinstating caps and enforcing them. It's just to easy of a cash grab for them not to. Same with modem leases. I don't see them handing out modems for free, even if they say it's included in bill, forever either.

I would like to point out Charter ended caps in Oct 2014. It had nothing to do with the purchase of TWC since Comcast was in the middle of trying to buy TWC themselves at the time. The FCC condition wasn't set until May 2016 which was a year and a half after Charter already ended caps on their own. So yes Charter used to have caps 5 1/2 years ago. That's ancient history when it comes to tech. Also I doubt the re-instates caps. The condition doesn't until until May 2023 that's another 3 years. Who knows what the landscape will look like then but I highly doubt it will conducive to a company imposing caps.

SysOp
join:2001-04-18
Atlanta, GA

-4 recommendations

SysOp to djrobx

Member

to djrobx
said by djrobx:

Spectrum is a large cable provider that's managed fine without caps. We didn't need COVID-19 to expose that caps are purely about increasing profits.

I'm sure they have usage based deprioritization. And profits are more of a capitalism vs socialism conversation.

Anon957dc
@47.13.107.x

Anon957dc

Anon

Re: Comcast waiving data caps hasn?t hurt its network?why not make it permanent?

said by SysOp:

I'm sure they have usage based deprioritization.

No they don't and they cant anyway even if they wanted to. We typically use 2-3 TB a month and have never faced any deprioritization.

Selenia
Gentoo Convert
Premium Member
join:2006-09-22
Fort Smith, AR

Selenia

Premium Member

Re: Comcast waiving data caps hasn?t hurt its network?why not make it permanent?

But we are feeling the struggle of the network to handle all these stay-at-home people with the covid19 epidemic. I mean it could be worse but it can get pretty bad in the evening if you do things like live stream. Plus a lot of connections seem to take the scenic route so if you do competitive gaming, you can get some benefit from one of those gaming VPN networks in a lot of cases.
nondo
join:2018-07-25

-2 recommendations

nondo

Member

Re: Comcast waiving data caps hasn?t hurt its network?why not make it permanent?

said by Selenia:

But we are feeling the struggle of the network to handle all these stay-at-home people with the covid19 epidemic. I mean it could be worse but it can get pretty bad in the evening if you do things like live stream. Plus a lot of connections seem to take the scenic route so if you do competitive gaming, you can get some benefit from one of those gaming VPN networks in a lot of cases.

The only thing you are feeling is the piss poor investment and network management choices by your ISP over the past decade.

Competitive gaming = business line

tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA

1 recommendation

tshirt

Premium Member

Re: Comcast waiving data caps hasn?t hurt its network?why not make it permanent?

said by nondo:

The only thing you are feeling is the piss poor investment and network management choices by your ISP over the past decade.

Competitive gaming = business line

How many business lines does Competitive gaming reliably provide over the years at any given location? How much total revenue can you depend on after churn, install expense, commissions to sales persons, tech support etc. vs a small home office or other small business line?

Perhaps the investment was in line with the capacity built for conditions 2019 rather than post covid-19/spring 2020 usage?

Was your ISP overinvesting in 60% more bandwidth then it was currently needed at the time? Just in case of a (generally unexpected pandemic?
Shouldn't they have invested in toilet paper futures instead?
or stockpiled personal protective equipment/medical equipment in the real world?
nondo
join:2018-07-25

-2 recommendations

nondo

Member

Re: Comcast waiving data caps hasn?t hurt its network?why not make it permanent?

Thanks for sharing a nonsensical rant about toilet paper futures.

SysOp
join:2001-04-18
Atlanta, GA

SysOp to eric89074

Member

to eric89074
said by eric89074:

overage charges. Overage charges have been exposed as a cash grab to make up for lost TV revenue.

Thanks for pointing that out. I didn't mean to suggest overages and edited my post for clarification.
SysOp

1 recommendation

SysOp

Member

Stupid to think an ISP's core network should be at capacity all the time. Bandwidth decreases as the number of subscribers/users/traffic increases and latency spikes during peak usage since all data is treated equally.
nondo
join:2018-07-25

-1 recommendation

nondo to SysOp

Member

to SysOp
said by SysOp:

Sure, if Comcast only had 1 speed tier. Bandwidth is a limited resource just like electricity during summer peak demand or water during a drought.

It's fair that once you hit your cap, you may continue, but at a higher priced tier and subjected to network management so that other users have equal access.

"The Exaflood" was and still is complete and utter bunk.

Fairness? Being fair means giving all the grandmas using 1GB/month a discount, but that will never happen.
Equal access? ISP's killed net neutrality so they do *not* care about equal access.

SysOp
join:2001-04-18
Atlanta, GA

2 edits

1 recommendation

SysOp

Member

Re: Comcast waiving data caps hasn?t hurt its network?why not make it permanent?

said by nondo:

Fairness? Being fair means giving all the grandmas using 1GB/month a discount, but that will never happen.
Equal access? ISP's killed net neutrality so they do *not* care about equal access.

This is a mute point since caps are not in place and it's not metered below the cap.

-At 1GB/Month, Grandma would have full speed data even on a congested node.
-All of Grandma's data is treated equally against the cap.
-If Grandma used all of her full speed data, her speeds would be reduced on a congested node.
-Grandma is on a fixed income so no overages for her, just reduce her speeds after her cap.
nondo
join:2018-07-25

-2 recommendations

nondo

Member

Re: Comcast waiving data caps hasn?t hurt its network?why not make it permanent?

said by SysOp:

said by nondo:

Fairness? Being fair means giving all the grandmas using 1GB/month a discount, but that will never happen.
Equal access? ISP's killed net neutrality so they do *not* care about equal access.

This is a mute point since caps are not in place and it's not metered below the cap.

-At 1GB/Month, Grandma would have full speed data even on a congested node.
-All of Grandma's data is treated equally against the cap.
-If Grandma used all of her full speed data, her speeds would be reduced on a congested node.
-Grandma is on a fixed income so no overages for her, just reduce her speeds after her cap.

It is not mute since you invoked being "fair."

Is it fair that grandma using 1GB/month pays the same as a gamer using 999GB/month? Yes or No.
Zimm7778
join:2012-12-28
Ruskin, FL

Zimm7778

Member

Re: Comcast waiving data caps hasn?t hurt its network?why not make it permanent?

If they sign up for the same speed, then yes.
nondo
join:2018-07-25

-2 recommendations

nondo

Member

Re: Comcast waiving data caps hasn?t hurt its network?why not make it permanent?

said by Zimm7778:

If they sign up for the same speed, then yes.

Let say same $84 tier with 1TB cap.

Grandma pays $84/GB vs gamer paying $0.084/GB.

You think that is fair?
mmmdonuts
no regerts
join:2011-02-28
Raleigh, NC

2 recommendations

mmmdonuts

Member

Re: Comcast waiving data caps hasn?t hurt its network?why not make it permanent?

said by nondo:

said by Zimm7778:

If they sign up for the same speed, then yes.

Let say same $84 tier with 1TB cap.

Grandma pays $84/GB vs gamer paying $0.084/GB.

You think that is fair?

It sounds like you're advocating for metered billing. That would be the ultimate in fairness.
Zimm7778
join:2012-12-28
Ruskin, FL

Zimm7778 to nondo

Member

to nondo
Same speed, same amount of data they have access to, and thus the same amount. So yes it is fair. Just like if you watch 1 hour of cable TV a month and someone else watches 500, it’s the same cost as long as you have the same package.
Expand your moderator at work
Rekrul
join:2007-04-21
Milford, CT

Rekrul to SysOp

Member

to SysOp
said by SysOp:

Sure, if Comcast only had 1 speed tier. Bandwidth is a limited resource just like electricity during summer peak demand or water during a drought.

That's like trying to reduce the traffic jams during rush hour by limiting how many miles each person can drive each month. The streets are still going to be jammed at rush hour.
said by SysOp:

It's fair that once you hit your cap, you may continue at a higher priced tier or be subjected to network management so that other users have equal access.

If you were the manager of a restaurant that could seat 100 people, would you order just enough food for 50 people and hope that that the restaurant was never filled to capacity?

Jim Kirk
Premium Member
join:2005-12-09
49985

2 recommendations

Jim Kirk to SysOp

Premium Member

to SysOp
said by SysOp:

Sure, if Comcast only had 1 speed tier. Bandwidth is a limited resource just like electricity during summer peak demand or water during a drought.

It's fair that once you hit your cap, you may continue at a higher priced tier or be subjected to network management so that other users have equal access.

This has to be an April Fools joke post, right?

GlennLouEarl
3 brothers, 1 gone
Premium Member
join:2002-11-17
Richmond, VA

-1 recommendation

GlennLouEarl to SysOp

Premium Member

to SysOp
said by SysOp:

Bandwidth is a limited resource just like electricity

This has never been true and never will be.

The power co. generates the electricity we use, which costs quite a lot of money to do and must be done on a continual basis. An ISP doesn't generate any of the bits and bytes it transmits (beyond a pittance of overhead); we, the subscribers, generate all of the traffic (including that which we cause to be sent to us by the sites we visit). And we generate an endless stream of traffic limited only by the bandwidth imposed upon us by the ISP. The ISPs want everyone to believe that more traffic costs them more money, which is entirely false; the cost difference between a customer using a little bandwidth and a lot is nil. Caps and overage fees have nothing to do with network performance or management; they're totally about bilking customers out of more money.

•••••••••••••••••
videomatic3
join:2003-12-12
Pleasanton, CA
ARRIS S33

1 recommendation

videomatic3 to SysOp

Member

to SysOp
i think that comcast just waived all our data caps just because the government will basically pay for it now, they already said they are giving out loans to companies that can prove they are having a hardship during the corona virus, they can show the reduced income they are getting now without the data cap fee, get a free loan from the government, and if they dont lay off anyone during the pandemic theres a chance that loan will get relieved at no cost to comcast.
so its the tax payers paying for the data caps to be removed.
time will tell.