wrote in message
...
On Dec 7, 3:03 pm, HK wrote:
Calif Bill wrote:
wrote in message
...
On Dec 6, 7:12 pm, BAR wrote:
JimH wrote:
"Reginald P. Smithers III" wrote in
message
news:MZmdnUKGHs4SuMXanZ2dnUVZ_uDinZ2d@comcast. com...
JimH wrote:
The actual phone service is not bad. It all depends on the
quality
of
your internet service. When speeds drop in my area (Time Warner
sucks)
then the voice quality degrades to unacceptable.
Vonage needs to improve tech support and stop routing these calls
through
India.
You are correct. I am also concerned that the infringement lawsuit
might
be the death of them, so I am glad others are getting into the VOIP
market
at competitive prices.
Indeed.
I could care less if Vonage goes under as there are plenty of other
options
available.
In the end I could do without any sort of home based phone service
and
it
may eventually get to the point with us relying only our cell
phones.
Bad move. Keep the land-line for emergencies. It only costs about $10
a
month.

Maybe we are just stuck in our old habits................after all,
how
does
the younger generation living on their own survive with *only* a
cell
phone?- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -
What emergency would a land line handle that a cell phone won't?

When AC power is down. Landline phones run off large battery banks.
One of
the reasons that you should have at least one, old fashioned non
wireless
phone in the house. If the power goes out, ou can not call for help of
service.

Bingo.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I've never had a problem with my cell phone. Our area was without
power for four days because of an ice storm three years ago.

Is area covered by 911 locating service of cell phones?

"Reginald P. Smithers III" wrote in message
...
Calif Bill wrote:
wrote in message
...
On Dec 6, 7:12 pm, BAR wrote:
JimH wrote:
"Reginald P. Smithers III" wrote in
message
. ..
JimH wrote:
The actual phone service is not bad. It all depends on the quality
of
your internet service. When speeds drop in my area (Time Warner
sucks)
then the voice quality degrades to unacceptable.
Vonage needs to improve tech support and stop routing these calls
through
India.
You are correct. I am also concerned that the infringement lawsuit
might
be the death of them, so I am glad others are getting into the VOIP
market
at competitive prices.
Indeed.
I could care less if Vonage goes under as there are plenty of other
options
available.
In the end I could do without any sort of home based phone service and
it
may eventually get to the point with us relying only our cell phones.
Bad move. Keep the land-line for emergencies. It only costs about $10 a
month.



Maybe we are just stuck in our old habits................after all,
how does
the younger generation living on their own survive with *only* a cell
phone?- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -
What emergency would a land line handle that a cell phone won't?

When AC power is down. Landline phones run off large battery banks. One
of the reasons that you should have at least one, old fashioned non
wireless phone in the house. If the power goes out, ou can not call for
help of service.

Why couldn't you use your cell phone?


911 locating service does not work in all areas.

On Fri, 07 Dec 2007 15:28:48 -0500, wrote:



Why couldn't you use your cell phone?

Cell sites need power to run, as well. They may have a small UPS, but
that likely won't keep it operational for very long.

I don't know the infrastructures, but when we had a 36 hour
power/cable/cable phone outage a few months ago, the cell was fine.

--Vic

" JimH" ask wrote in message
...

"D.Duck" wrote in message
...

"Reginald P. Smithers III" wrote in message
...
Calif Bill wrote:
wrote in message
...
On Dec 6, 7:12 pm, BAR wrote:
JimH wrote:
"Reginald P. Smithers III" wrote in
message
. ..
JimH wrote:
The actual phone service is not bad. It all depends on the
quality of
your internet service. When speeds drop in my area (Time Warner
sucks)
then the voice quality degrades to unacceptable.
Vonage needs to improve tech support and stop routing these calls
through
India.
You are correct. I am also concerned that the infringement lawsuit
might
be the death of them, so I am glad others are getting into the VOIP
market
at competitive prices.
Indeed.
I could care less if Vonage goes under as there are plenty of other
options
available.
In the end I could do without any sort of home based phone service
and it
may eventually get to the point with us relying only our cell
phones.
Bad move. Keep the land-line for emergencies. It only costs about $10
a
month.



Maybe we are just stuck in our old habits................after all,
how does
the younger generation living on their own survive with *only* a
cell phone?- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -
What emergency would a land line handle that a cell phone won't?

When AC power is down. Landline phones run off large battery banks.
One of the reasons that you should have at least one, old fashioned non
wireless phone in the house. If the power goes out, ou can not call
for help of service.

Why couldn't you use your cell phone?


911 locating service does not work in all areas.


So do it the old fashioned way and tell the dispatcher your address.

What if you're disabled or some other reason are unable to speak?

On Fri, 7 Dec 2007 16:35:12 -0500, " JimH" ask wrote:


"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
.. .
On Thu, 06 Dec 2007 10:24:14 -0500, "Reginald P. Smithers III"
wrote:

The power of competition is amazing. I have been using Vonage for a few
years, and can not tell the difference between Vonage and BellSouth
except for the lower price and substantially more features offered by
Vonage.

Today, I got an offer in the mail from AT&T offering VOIP and similar
features at the same price as Vonage. As long as Vonage continues to
provides excellent service, I will not change, but it is nice to see the
market place working.

VOIP is a diaster waiting to happen and when it does, all you VOIP
losers...er...users are going to be stuck with no way to communicate.

You heard it here first.

It has been around for over 10 years and it will be around for a while.

If Vonage goes under, no big deal. If Time Warner VOIP goes under, no big
deal. If all VOIP providers go under, no big deal. In the end I will still
have a cell phone and will always be able to transfer back to my money local
grabbing telephone company (although that will never happen, regardless of
what happens with VOIP). I will also have saved over $500/year using VOIP
while it was up.

It's not about price - it's about complexity and inter-relationship of
digital systems.

Eventually the system will break because of the load - in particular
as the backbone carriers are not putting a lot of money into fiber
anymore because of costs and ROI.

You have to remember that cell phones are also digital - you don't
have analog cells anymore. All it takes is a node to collapse under
load and you can't communicate - like happened here in NE CT last year
when the only people who could communicate were those who had land
lines. I admit it was only for two hours, but it proves the point.

Plus, we have Charter and they can't keep the system up when Mother
Nature decides to fart loudly. Local thunderstorms - forget it - the
system is down for at least four/five hours. The speeds are never
consistent and it sounds horrible even on good days.

Good old analog phone line - the only way to go.

And further proof - when Katrina hit and the Feds needed to find out
what happened to the LOOP, they did it by land line because the cell
phone system collapsed - no Internet.

Keep your VOIP, save the money and try not to think about the
vulnerability of the system - it's way too fragile.

And don't even get me started on this digital TV fiasco.

"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...


And don't even get me started on this digital TV fiasco.

I spent several hours trying to explain to my son why going to digital TV is
good.
All I got was glassy eyed stares.

But, sometime's it's better to read it. He sent me the following link the
next day with an acknowledgement that he now, "got it".

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/mar04/3811

Eisboch

On Fri, 7 Dec 2007 17:39:19 -0500, "Eisboch"
wrote:


"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
.. .


And don't even get me started on this digital TV fiasco.

I spent several hours trying to explain to my son why going to digital TV is
good.
All I got was glassy eyed stares.

But, sometime's it's better to read it. He sent me the following link the
next day with an acknowledgement that he now, "got it".

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/mar04/3811

I understand the issue - I disagree with the conclusion.

I'll make the same argument that most people seem to be missing. It's
the same kind of blind spot that JimH has.

Eventually, with the lack of systems through put improvement and
increasing complexity of the digital "system" (which is becoming more
and more integrated) one failure point will cause system collapse.

Without the ability to bypass the digital system with analog signals
receivable by simple devices, the ability to communicate emergency
information is severely compromised.

With the increasing use of wireless everything, even simple tasks now
become vulnerable if the power grid fails. You have people who don't
understand why their wireless phones don't work when the power goes
out, how will you get them to understand that their TV won't work
because it's wirelessly connected to the digital cable box.

I'm telling you - the whole move to digital is going to lead to a
diaster and a big one.

wrote in message
...
On Dec 7, 3:03 pm, HK wrote:
Calif Bill wrote:
wrote in message
...
On Dec 6, 7:12 pm, BAR wrote:
JimH wrote:
"Reginald P. Smithers III" wrote in
message
news:MZmdnUKGHs4SuMXanZ2dnUVZ_uDinZ2d@comcast. com...
JimH wrote:
The actual phone service is not bad. It all depends on the
quality
of
your internet service. When speeds drop in my area (Time Warner
sucks)
then the voice quality degrades to unacceptable.
Vonage needs to improve tech support and stop routing these calls
through
India.
You are correct. I am also concerned that the infringement lawsuit
might
be the death of them, so I am glad others are getting into the VOIP
market
at competitive prices.
Indeed.
I could care less if Vonage goes under as there are plenty of other
options
available.
In the end I could do without any sort of home based phone service
and
it
may eventually get to the point with us relying only our cell
phones.
Bad move. Keep the land-line for emergencies. It only costs about $10
a
month.

Maybe we are just stuck in our old habits................after all,
how
does
the younger generation living on their own survive with *only* a
cell
phone?- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -
What emergency would a land line handle that a cell phone won't?

When AC power is down. Landline phones run off large battery banks.
One of
the reasons that you should have at least one, old fashioned non
wireless
phone in the house. If the power goes out, ou can not call for help of
service.

Bingo.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I've never had a problem with my cell phone. Our area was without
power for four days because of an ice storm three years ago.

You have been lucky.

On Fri, 07 Dec 2007 17:40:26 -0500, wrote:

On Fri, 07 Dec 2007 15:16:32 -0600, Vic Smith
wrote:

On Fri, 07 Dec 2007 15:28:48 -0500, wrote:



Why couldn't you use your cell phone?

Cell sites need power to run, as well. They may have a small UPS, but
that likely won't keep it operational for very long.

I don't know the infrastructures, but when we had a 36 hour
power/cable/cable phone outage a few months ago, the cell was fine.

--Vic

As I pointed out elsewhere, this could be due to something as simple as you
being in range of a cell tower that was in an area that had power.

Not so simple. I did a quick google and found that cell providers
often have emergency generators to maintain service, and then of
course as you said many power outages are local enough that cell
provider isn't even affected.
From what I read - again, it was cursory - the big issue with
widespread power outages is that the cell service can get overwhelmed
with calls, making getting a connection difficult.
OTOH, my Comcast phone was dead, dead, dead.

--Vic

On Fri, 7 Dec 2007 12:01:17 -0800, "Calif Bill"
wrote:


wrote in message
...
On Dec 6, 7:12 pm, BAR wrote:
JimH wrote:
"Reginald P. Smithers III" wrote in message
...
JimH wrote:

The actual phone service is not bad. It all depends on the quality
of
your internet service. When speeds drop in my area (Time Warner
sucks)
then the voice quality degrades to unacceptable.

Vonage needs to improve tech support and stop routing these calls
through
India.
You are correct. I am also concerned that the infringement lawsuit
might
be the death of them, so I am glad others are getting into the VOIP
market
at competitive prices.

Indeed.

I could care less if Vonage goes under as there are plenty of other
options
available.

In the end I could do without any sort of home based phone service and
it
may eventually get to the point with us relying only our cell phones.

Bad move. Keep the land-line for emergencies. It only costs about $10 a
month.



Maybe we are just stuck in our old habits................after all, how
does
the younger generation living on their own survive with *only* a cell
phone?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

What emergency would a land line handle that a cell phone won't?

When AC power is down. Landline phones run off large battery banks. One of
the reasons that you should have at least one, old fashioned non wireless
phone in the house. If the power goes out, ou can not call for help of
service.


Use a cell phone!
--
John H