Notice of Copper Retirement

[Ultramatic]

 

 

It's finally happening to me. Verizon just sent me a letter stating they are going to replace my copper landline service with fiber optics. They are "upgrading" my service.

 

As part of my "upgrade" they will install a battery operated back up "device" in case of a power failure. Now of course what they won't tell you that "device" will only give you ONE hour of standby time, not talk time, just standby time. Presumably if you use your phone, that back up time will be considerably less.  And of course, you need to supply the batteries, even though they state this service upgrade is of "no cost to you". 

 

Now we very seldom loose power where I am. Last time that happened was in the general blackout  of 2003, when the whole northeast lost power. That blackout lasted for 22 hours. Before that, it was 1977, that one lasted 20hrs, that last one in 1965 lasted 7 hours (Brooklyn).

 

And the phones NEVER failed. They had their own, back-up generators so we had service throughout the duration.

 

So now, thanks to this new "upgrade" I can look forward to loosing my phones shortly after a blackout.

 

 

 

[toploader55]

Don't you love Progress, Upgrades, and Improvements over things that have been proven to last ?

Ughhhh...

 

[Ultramatic]

 

 

It's just greed. Verizon simply doesn't want to maintain the copper lines. Fiber optics are far cheaper, but of course we're the ones who get screwed.

 

[tomturbomatic]

I wonder if there is also the motive of getting the fiber-optics in place for making it easier to switch cable customers.

 

Losing the dependability of traditional land lines is a blow to security; national, state and local. Think of Russia, or other hostile power, being able to easily break the ability for neighbors to talk with and check on each other and worse, government agencies being able to coordinate actions in times of trouble, just by interrupting strategic power lines. The ubiquitous handheld devices depend on an external electrical supply, too, for the antennae.

 

[jmm63]

We have one of those "back up" things for our Fios and phone system.  It actually does provide power for the land line for about 8 hours in ao black out.  You do have to replace the battery about every 5 years or so, although I haven't had to do that yet and its going on 7.

 

I did hear, and don't know how true it is,  but everyone that has one of those back ups plugged into their electric is actually helping to power the entire Fios system.  Of course this came from a Cablevision person on the one time I switched to them.  I switched back to Fios a couple years later.  Never really noticed that much of a change in the power bill. 

 

 

[mattl]

Funny, I lost power for a couple of days a couple of weeks ago, first time in years.  My biggest issue was charging my smart phone.  It kept me connected and occupied for the duration.  I thought about asking one of the neighbors who all had their generators out if I could run some power for my phone, but they are all relatively new and I don't know them that well.

 

Anyway to the point, I came across an article online indicating your phone line could power your cell phone.  All you needed was a simple 7805 voltage regulater chip and a maybe a resistor, all of which I had laying around.  I still have copper to the house, no active phone line, but ATT supplied uVerse internet over the lines.  Come to find out there was no voltage on the lines.  Now I don't know if it was due to the power outage or if they killed the power when I switched to uvesrse, but I was disappointed. Thought I'd have a fun project and had planned to set up a more permanent setup powering several phone outlets around the house just in case.   I'll have to check now that the power is back on and see if the voltage is there.

 

[yogitunes]

this 'new' backup system is part of their offering of FiOS.......

bottom line, there is now competition for customers like Comcast.....once installed, you can now call them both, and see which one offers the better deal, and not nickel and dimes, go for big dollar savings....you can get Comcast's Triple Play for a LOT less than you think.....and installed for FREE...

they supply the batteries, it will CHIRP non stop, when the battery runs low on power....apparently it doesn't recharge...

this is what the new box on the outside looks like.....if your lucky, your installer will be this handsome too!

 

[ea56]

We've had the Comcast Triple Play for about 2 1/2 yrs now and I love it! I was an AT&T customer for 43 yrs. and I got tired of their endless rate increases and poor quality DSL service.

The Comcast internet service is excellent! And I don't know how we ever got along without all the extra calling features that are included with the Comcast Voice service. We could have paid extra for these services with AT&T, but I felt they were already overcharging, so I refused to get the extras. I especially like the caller ID. If the TV is on the callers name and number flash on the screen. It's a great way to avoid answering a call that you have now interest in.

And the battery backup works flawlessly! Our power seldom goes out, but the few times it has we've had phone service. But the flip side is if the cable goes out, so does the phone. But in 2 1/2 yrs. this has only happened once, for about 2 hrs., not a crisis, and we both had our Tracfones available, so no problem. We keep two old land line telephones plugged into the jacks, and also have a cordless with an extra handset. To use the phone during a power outage you need to have an old landline phone.

I installed the system myself and I backfed the voice signal into the old AT&T box by plugging the voice line into the phone jack nearest the modem and I disconnected the AT&T line from the box outside. All the phone jacks in the house have a voice signal. It was really easy to do.

About a year after I installed the system there was a problem with the underground lines in front of the house and Comcast set a tech out to repair them. Since he was here he came into the house to be sure there was nothing in the house that needed attention too. When I told him I did the install myself he said he'd never seen a customer be able to do this on their own, and that I did it all correctly. Thank you You Tube! You can learn how to do just about anything from You Tube.

Ma Bell can bite me.

Eddie