  SnowyLock him up!!!
Premium Member
join:2003-04-05
Kailua, HI |
Snowy
Premium Member
2011-Feb-17 4:29 pm
It's too large to call a nicheIf I understand the offer correctly...
There's a bunch of people (myself until just a few months ago) that have no real world reasons to keep a landline.
Not having a landline might seem normal to some generations, but there are folks who struggle with just the thought of not having a landline @home.
I dropped my landline service but for sure I would taken an offer of $9.99/month to keep it.
If anything it can act as a set of 'training wheels' to get folks OK with idea of not having copper@home. | |
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Re: It's too large to call a nicheRight but this seems odd. You get the lower voice quality of a wireless network call I assume, plus it doesn't work during power outages. If it's designed to supplement the traditional landline, it seems to eliminate its strongest positives. | |
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| | SnowyLock him up!!!
Premium Member
join:2003-04-05
Kailua, HI |
Snowy
Premium Member
2011-Feb-17 4:57 pm
Re: It's too large to call a nicheThe thing about not working during a power outage holds true for landlines too. If the phone is equipped with battery power it will work, if not it won't work.
But yeah, it's weird how just the thought of not having a landline plays into the decision. | |
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Re: It's too large to call a nicheI remember specific events from the 80's where we had power outages, and the phone still worked perfectly (wired phone, no battery) | |
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| | | | SnowyLock him up!!!
Premium Member
join:2003-04-05
Kailua, HI |
Snowy
Premium Member
2011-Feb-17 5:25 pm
Re: It's too large to call a nichesaid by C_Chipperson:I remember specific events from the 80's where we had power outages, and the phone still worked perfectly (wired phone, no battery)
If the carriers switching station has backup generator power phone service would not affected by an area electrical outage. | |
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| | | | |  batterupI Can Not Tell A Lie.
Premium Member
join:2003-02-06
Netcong, NJ |
batterup
Premium Member
2011-Feb-17 8:24 pm
Re: It's too large to call a nichesaid by Snowy:said by C_Chipperson:I remember specific events from the 80's where we had power outages, and the phone still worked perfectly (wired phone, no battery)
If the carriers switching station has backup generator power phone service would not affected by an area electrical outage. IF, CARRIERS? We are talking about Verizon, The Phone Company. They have dozens of batteries the size of 55 gallon drums and a generator as big as your garage. They also dispatch trucks with portable generators to remote terminals if the power is out for more than an hour or two. | |
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ARRIS SB6180
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Re: It's too large to call a nicheslim line phone = no battery. runs off the phone line.
even when the ENTIRE city lost power last year, phones still worked, EXCEPT mediacom which ofcourse is "entertainment service" theyl just put that in the fine print to get away with not having to have back up power on their network. | |
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| | | | |  kpfx
join:2005-10-28
San Antonio, TX |
to Snowy
said by Snowy:said by C_Chipperson:I remember specific events from the 80's where we had power outages, and the phone still worked perfectly (wired phone, no battery)
If the carriers switching station has backup generator power phone service would not affected by an area electrical outage. That works when it's copper running all the way back to the main switching station... but that's not always the case on the new phone networks. Verizon's FiOS is going to be at the mercy of the UPS battery installed at the end-user's termination point. Newer copper solutions like AT&T's U-Verse are going to rely on the 3 or 6 car batteries in the VRAD.... from there it's fiber back to their central office. So in a short-term power outage services like FiOS, U-Verse, and DOCSIS networks should work.... but once you get past a few hours you'll see sections start to die. And yes they can and will dispatch trucks with generators to the nodes or VRADs in the event the batteries fail, but don't expect them to dispatch to all the thousands of locations that may fail in a city-wide power outage. | |
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| | | | | | batterupI Can Not Tell A Lie.
Premium Member
join:2003-02-06
Netcong, NJ |
batterup
Premium Member
2011-Feb-18 1:17 am
Re: It's too large to call a nichesaid by kpfx:So in a short-term power outage services like FiOS, U-Verse, and DOCSIS networks should work.... but once you get past a few hours you'll see sections start to die. And yes they can and will dispatch trucks with generators to the nodes or VRADs in the event the batteries fail, but don't expect them to dispatch to all the thousands of locations that may fail in a city-wide power outage.
I have not seen a power outage of more than a half hour that I can remember. If power is out for an extended period there is more to worry about than landline POTS. The food in the freezer and heat if it is winter. If POTS is so critical get a battery backup for a few hundred dollars and it will keep the circuit up for days. | |
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to C_Chipperson
There is battery/voltage required to send dial tone over a copper pair. That voltage is provided by the Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier(ILEC), AT&T,VZ etc. (provided by battery/generators if local power is out). This works if the power/electricity goes out @ your home because the telephone network is independant of your local electrical service.
PS. Need a corded phone, no cordless phones
during an electrical outage. | |
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| | |  Gbcue
Premium Member
join:2001-09-30
Santa Rosa, CA |
to Snowy
said by Snowy:The thing about not working during a power outage holds true for landlines too. If the phone is equipped with battery power it will work, if not it won't work.
But yeah, it's weird how just the thought of not having a landline plays into the decision.
Wired landline phones work in power outages. | |
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| | | | SnowyLock him up!!!
Premium Member
join:2003-04-05
Kailua, HI |
Snowy
Premium Member
2011-Feb-17 5:32 pm
Re: It's too large to call a nichesaid by Gbcue:Wired landline phones work in power outages.
Yeah, sort of. They need electricity to run. Whether it comes from the grid or the phone companies own generators (which come into play in the event of an outage) they will not work without a current. Beyond that, phones that use electricity for things such as activating the ringer will not ring during a power outage if a battery backup is not present. So yeah, you can dial out, you can receive too, you just might not be able to know that someone is trying to call you. | |
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Re: It's too large to call a nicheWhere do you get that idea from? If the central office or remote terminal (the RT that serves my home has a backup propane generator) is running on backup power, it will still provide ringing voltage as well dial tone levels to wired phones. At least until the generator runs out of fuel. | |
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Re: It's too large to call a nicheSince when do telcos permanently install generators next to RTs? Around here (NYC/CT) they usually let them run out of battery. The generator ports are for show. Maybe they will hook up a generator if VIP customer such as hospital or police station is on the RT. | |
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| | | | | | | batterupI Can Not Tell A Lie.
Premium Member
join:2003-02-06
Netcong, NJ |
batterup
Premium Member
2011-Feb-17 9:05 pm
Re: It's too large to call a nichesaid by patcat88:Since when do telcos permanently install generators next to RTs? I read this somewhere about RTs. said by batterup: They also dispatch trucks with portable generators to remote terminals if the power is out for more than an hour or two. | |
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| | | | | | SnowyLock him up!!!
Premium Member
join:2003-04-05
Kailua, HI |
to LostInWoods
said by LostInWoods:Where do you get that idea from? If the central office or remote terminal (the RT that serves my home has a backup propane generator) is running on backup power, it will still provide ringing voltage as well dial tone levels to wired phones.
Yes, that's correct but let me clarify. A phone that is designed to operate solely on the phone companies voltage will work 100% as designed during a power outage. It will ring & it will have a dial tone. A phone that needs an AC power source of it's own to power additional features will obviously have limited functionality during a power outage. Not announcing an incoming call (ringing) is one of the common effects of an outage. From the phone company's view their providing 100% of the service level their responsible for regardless of an outage. The phone company has no responsibility how that plays out on the customer side though. So yeah, a phone line is built to provide a ringing voltage as well dial tone levels to wired phones during a power outage. The problem is that not all phones are capable of operating beyond the dial tone without a secondary power supply. I should have clarified that earlier, my error. | |
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| | | | | | | batterupI Can Not Tell A Lie.
Premium Member
join:2003-02-06
Netcong, NJ |
batterup
Premium Member
2011-Feb-18 1:21 am
Re: It's too large to call a nichesaid by Snowy:A phone that is designed to operate solely on the phone companies voltage will work 100% as designed during a power outage. It will ring & it will have a dial tone. Not true; this new flanged contraption does not support my black rotary combined set in the sitting room. | |
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| | | | |  dathing
join:2002-01-09
Sykesville, MD |
to Snowy
All phones use electricity. A basic analog POTS telephone is powered by the telephone central office battery plant and will ring during a commercial power outage. | |
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to Snowy
said by Snowy:said by Gbcue:Wired landline phones work in power outages.
Yeah, sort of. They need electricity to run. Whether it comes from the grid or the phone companies own generators (which come into play in the event of an outage) they will not work without a current. Beyond that, phones that use electricity for things such as activating the ringer will not ring during a power outage if a battery backup is not present. So yeah, you can dial out, you can receive too, you just might not be able to know that someone is trying to call you. UH, yes you will. As stated above, the local phone company (whoever they may be) has huge generators and huge diesel tanks. Along with a large array of batteries that are almost as tall as you are. These generator are almost all auto start. Granted, you can't have a wireless phone. But all others will work just as if the power was on. And all those that work off an r.t. people are dispatched with a generator quickly. | |
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| | | | | | ag62
join:2001-04-29
Richboro, PA |
ag62
Member
2011-Feb-23 9:45 am
Re: It's too large to call a nicheIn my area, PA, my landline(copper line) corder phone stops working when power goes out. I think Verizon is using fiber to deliver the signal to substation in my development which is impacted every time we lose power. | |
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| | | | | | | batterupI Can Not Tell A Lie.
Premium Member
join:2003-02-06
Netcong, NJ |
batterup
Premium Member
2011-Feb-23 1:35 pm
Re: It's too large to call a nichesaid by ag62:In my area, PA, my landline(copper line) corder phone stops working when power goes out. I think Verizon is using fiber to deliver the signal to substation in my development which is impacted every time we lose power.
Yes it is true much of the POTS network is feed by fiber to a remote terminal but that terminal has battery backup that will last three or four hours. Verizon also has trucks with generators that will power the remote terminals if the power is out for longer than that. Many T carrier with service guaranties pass through the remote terminals and they could have up to a 100% up-time guarantee. | |
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jettaandy to Snowy
Anon
2011-Feb-17 7:34 pm
to Snowy
If your landline is connected to a cordless phone it will not work during a power outage. If you have a regular corded phone it will work during a power outage | |
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to Karl Bode
In my experience VZW call quality has been quite good. You can't run a 56k modem over it, but it's still very decent. | |
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| | | cghh
join:2001-01-15
Milpitas, CA |
cghh
Member
2011-Feb-17 6:36 pm
Re: It's too large to call a nicheThe encoding algorithms used with cell phones is lossy, in order to get more compression. The codecs are designed specifically to render human speech so it sounds OK to a human ear. Ever since cell phones went digital, it has been known that if you want to push data over a cell phone, you need to do a data call using the modem functionality built into the phone. Using a traditional modem and playing its tones into a cell phone would lead to a mangled mess.
And listening to "elevator music" while on hold on a cell phone... a very painful experience. | |
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Re: It's too large to call a nicheI know, I know...however personally Verizon/Sprint's codec choice (EVRC or SMV) isn't that bad, even for music. AMR-HR OTOH (AT&T GSM) is icky. AMR-FR (T-Mobile) is better. Nextel 6:1...sucks. | |
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Re: It's too large to call a nicheAt 9 kbps EVRC is painful. Anything is. 14kbps is better but they only let ancient QCELP run on that and that isn't better than EVRC at 9kbps. Its pathetic that cellphone voice runs at the bandwidth of a 1985 dialup modem. How about some AAC at 24kbps? Good enough for anything you can throw at it including music. | |
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iansltx
Member
2011-Feb-17 11:12 pm
Re: It's too large to call a niche'cuz AAC is a complex codec, and it's not realtime.
G.729 OTOH is nice if I'm ot getting my G's mixed up. So is Speex. But betcha you'll never see SPeex on cell phones, and "HD voice" is only starting on VoIP in the biz sector now. | |
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ohreally
Anon
2011-Feb-19 9:47 am
Re: It's too large to call a nichesaid by iansltx:and "HD voice" is only starting on VoIP in the biz sector now.
One of the networks over here is starting to use AMR-WB on a few of its phones: » newsroom.orange.co.uk/20 ··· n-voice/"HD Voice runs on the 3G network and uses the WB-AMR (Wideband Adaptive Multi-Rate) speech codec. This provides excellent audio quality due to a wider speech bandwidth of 50–7000 Hz compared to the current narrowband speech codec of 300–3400 Hz. The WB-AMR (Wideband Adaptive Multi-Rate) delivers significantly enhanced sound quality while utilising the same network resource" | |
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to patcat88
said by patcat88:At 9 kbps EVRC is painful. Anything is. 14kbps is better but they only let ancient QCELP run on that and that isn't better than EVRC at 9kbps. Its pathetic that cellphone voice runs at the bandwidth of a 1985 dialup modem. How about some AAC at 24kbps? Good enough for anything you can throw at it including music.
8kbps is max for EVRC, 4 is the norm now with EVRC-B in congested market's unfortunately | |
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| |  IowaCowboyLost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA ·Comcast XFINITY
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to Karl Bode
I just bought one yesterday to cut my home phone bill in half. I was paying over $45 a month for Verizon landline (in addition to my cell phones through AT&T) and I got the home phone connect to cut my home phone bill in half. It DOES have a battery back-up and the battery looks more like a battery you'd find in a cordless phone as opposed to a cellular phone or EMTA. You can probably get replacements at Radio Shack (if they don't go under, which I hope they don't because I've shopped there and best buy most of my life). The battery is dependent on having a phone that does not rely on electrical power, such as a corded phone. The reason I keep a home phone is so I can have the phone ring throughout the house and I plan on connecting the home phone connect to the inside wire after the number port is complete (and after I've disconnected it from the outside wire). | |
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|  cdruGo Colts
MVM
join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN |
to Snowy
said by Snowy:I dropped my landline service but for sure I would taken an offer of $9.99/month to keep it. This was exactly what happened to me. I had Frontier FiOS triple play, but with the recently announced price increase, I felt I was paying too much. Just dropping voice would have lowered my bill $50+ after taxes and fees. But I didn't want to part with my home phone number nor change my cell number if I could. Many people know both and it was just a preference not to eliminate either. I had considered going with just a cheap VOIP plan, Google Voice (especially now that they are starting to port in...once they allow land line ports), or even just an additional line on our family plan although they all had down sides. I saw a Comcast promo for $80 for double play, or $90 for triple play. It was the $10 I was looking for without the downsides the other options had. Even without promo pricing, the cost was less then what Frontier was going to charge. | |
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| | batterupI Can Not Tell A Lie.
Premium Member
join:2003-02-06
Netcong, NJ |
batterup
Premium Member
2011-Feb-18 4:58 pm
Re: It's too large to call a nichesaid by cdru:said by Snowy:I dropped my landline service but for sure I would taken an offer of $9.99/month to keep it. This was exactly what happened to me. I had Frontier FiOS triple play, but with the recently announced price increase, I felt I was paying too much. Just dropping voice would have lowered my bill $50+ after taxes and fees. If one digs into it one can find a low message unite land line plan. In North New Jersey I can get a POST line from Verizon for $14.95; unlimited incoming 20 message units local calling. A messages unit is about 5 minutes with 20 cents a minute over that amount. Of course that does not include about $5 in federal and state tax. Why doesn't VOIP users have to pay the USF tax? That is B.S. a phone is a phone. | |
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lolwut?So it's the weaknesses of wireless (mediocre call quality, less reliable, expensive) combined with the weaknesses of home services (can't take it with you). I, for one, always use my home phone whenever possible because it doesn't sound like crap. | |
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sneaky sneakyIs this only going to be available in non-Verizon landline areas?  | |
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| SnowyLock him up!!!
Premium Member
join:2003-04-05
Kailua, HI |
Snowy
Premium Member
2011-Feb-17 5:21 pm
Re: sneaky sneakysaid by patcat88:Is this only going to be available in non-Verizon landline areas?
LOL | |
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A way to provide Un Regulated phone serviceIt might just be a way to get back into a market that was previously sold or Un-served by Verizon as a Home phone provider. Seems like you put this router type item where all the extensions would interface with your NID, and now all your house phones are on the wireless network.
Wonder what happens if you text message that number? | |
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bejee
join:2007-07-30
Orleans, VT |
bejee
Member
2011-Feb-17 5:06 pm
Think about this...Firstly, there is a battery backup in the unit giving you a few hours of service if the power goes out, and of course you still have your cell phone. If I could get Verizon wireless service where I live this would be a good deal for $10. I could have a regular phone in any room, no use of minutes problem w/the kids, and (I think!) a single number for both landline and phone - no more googlevoice. | |
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cruz1
Anon
2011-Feb-17 5:30 pm
Come on, its just a cell phone!I like the reverse femtocell, home phone connect and other names for it .. but people - it's just a cell phone!!! Sure it may use your own landline headset as the speaker and mic but is essence it's still a cell phone!
That said, I still may be interested in it. Sounds like a good deal and sometimes its nice to have something wired to landline so I can hear it anywhere in the house when I don't have cell on me... | |
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I wonder..Can you use it for dail up internet? | |
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copper or notThis looks like a way to move people of off copper, which in a lot of areas is a shared resource. Think how much money Verizon could save if they abandon copper and the maintenance that goes with it. Now if I could just get that price for my Digital phone service via FIOS. Keep in mind that Verizon will need some type of service fill the 800/1900Mhz spectrum are LTE.
And why do I still have POTs service, simple, my cell does not work very well in my house and I have no plans to purchase a femto from them. Wonder if this device can connect via a femto. | |
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its availablei called my local store in oregon today and its available as of today in oregon | |
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Car Phone...While I understand this isn't as portable as a cell phone, unless I am reading it wrong, the Terms and Conditions don't seem to prohibit this to be used as a mobile device. All you'd need is a power inverter.
At the stand alone price point of 19.99 + normal junk fees/month, I could see truckers, road warriors, sales people and the like putting one of these in their vehicle. The pricing is much more affordable than their normal Mobile plans. At 1/2 the price of their 450 min tier I think its just a matter of time...
I tried starting a junk order to see the options and they also have text and Internet plans associated with this, but I'm not sure how they intend that to work. | |
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 SteveLV702
Premium Member
join:2004-04-22
Las Vegas, NV |
has battery backupI was at Verizon store today to get my phone worked on and happened to see this device and it says it has battery backup so works during power outage. | |
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id09542
join:2002-04-25
Bloomington, IL |
This is not newBeen using one of these gems for years now, allows me to back feed my cell phones and utilize the house phones. » www.myxlink.com/xlink_bt.aspx | |
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Re: This is not newAlready tried to tell some people about that: » Re: Think about this.... Again, I still don't understand what the big WHOOP is on the Vzn device...  | |
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Tip and Ring
Anon
2011-Feb-18 3:42 pm
Re: This is not newCan you use it on your ADT alarm system? If so that would be a big benefit | |
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timv
Anon
2011-Feb-28 7:06 pm
duhhh! A phone in every room in the house now! That's why!I'm frightened by the number of people on here that don't understand the benefit of this. I can't tell you how many times I've been away from home, tried to call my wife at home and guess what...no answer. Why? Because I called the cell and she is a woman. Is the phone in her pocket everywhere she goes? Hell no! It's one little phone sitting somewhere in a 2300sq ft house. Or maybe, it's in the garage, in her car, with a dead battery. Real convenient if someone needs to call 911. One little cell phone per phone number or one in every room in the house with unlimited calling for $20. Is it really so hard to wrap your brain around the benefit here?! Oh, and by the way...it does have a battery backup, but big deal, I have a cell phone and a generator. | |
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