I believe its still the case, but you can order from the local LEC a soft-dial tone. You hear dial tone, however the only calls that can be made are to the LEC's Billing & to the PSAP(911). This might be a good option for people w/ kids, etc. without paying the full price of a land line. I used to work for Hawaiian Tel and we had an earthquake. It knock out the power for several days. Most of our CO's stayed up & supported PSTN due to generators & DC. People who had telephony w/ the cable company lost communications along with their TV. Just a thought.
BN On Thu, Dec 4, 2008 at 5:47 AM, Russell J. Lahti <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > That is the one and only thing keeping a land line at my home. I > have two young children, and I need to be sure that if something > were to ever happen that: 1.) The phone would work even if the > power was out, or the Internet connectivity was flaking out. > 2.) 911 would function exactly the way it is supposed to, and > not be routed to some 3rd party call center which could potentially > delay a response. > > I haven't found the power to be reliable, and the cable Internet > tends to go down when the power goes out. There's always cellular, > but then you have to depend on there being someone with a cell phone > around to make the call, and my kids aren't to the age yet that I > would want them toting around their own cell phones. As long as > my POTS line is more reliable than VoIP, I'll probably keep it. > > -Russell > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Mike Lyon [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2008 2:11 AM > > To: Alex Rubenstein > > Cc: nanog@nanog.org > > Subject: Re: Telecom Collapse? > > > > That makes two of us... > > > > Anyways, for residential VOIP, where are we these days with > > E911? Are providers like Vonage and such providing reliable > > E911 when people call 911? That is one of the major problems > > I see with the residential realm going with VOIP offerings... > > > > -Mike > > > > > > On Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 11:06 PM, Alex Rubenstein > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > >> I deliberated for a while on whether to send this, or not, but I > > >> figure it might be of interest to this community: > > >> > > >> http://techliberation.com/2008/12/04/telecom-collapse/ > > > > > > Good god. If there is even the mention of a LEC bailout, I > > am going to go insane and probably shoot someone (those who > > know me know this is a actual possibility). > > > > > > If the phone companies had actually focused on providing > > good, competitive service, this would have never happened. > > Instead, they spent money and time on figuring out ways to > > screw with their competition, and have legislation passed > > that protects them. > > > > > > People (at least the ones I know) are fed up with dealing > > with these companies, and many people I know don't have land > > lines and never intend on having them again. > > > > > > Let them collapse. It's good for them, us, and the > > capitalist in you and me. Go buy a cell phone, and have a coke. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- -B
