In article , Homer
wrote:

With Digital Phone

I wish someone could point to a "digital phone". They don't exist.

They are all analog. Pick-up an old rotary phone from the 30s at a garage
sale and they (usually) will work if properly connected to a common dial tone.
Talk about backward compatibility!

purchased through Comcast, Time-Warner, Cox, etc... you
get a dedicated line from your home to the cable head end, where your
call is connected there

I respectfully disagree. (Wait! This is usenet.) Your muther wears combat
boots! HA! grin

Cable telephone service is "dedicated" until it reaches the voice
port/RT/conversion box/whatever, usually mounted on the outside of your house.
Some have the converter box inside the house.

There it is converted to digital. It then "rides" the common, coaxial cable.
The digital signal is then processed elsewhere and connected to the common,
public switched network.

The incumbent telco provides [drum roll] Digital Phone Service, too. They did
for YEARS before the cable companies even began offering dialtone.

The difference is that your analog phone service is carried on a dedicated
copper pair for a greater distance than just the back of your house: Often
several miles to the Central Office. There, it is converted to a digital
signal and connected to the public, switched network. Sometimes, the copper
pair runs to a nearby, neighborhood remote terminal or pair gain system.
There, then, is where the analog-to-digital conversion takes place.

Don't be too impressed by the concept of Digital Phone Service. With the
possible exception those whose hearing is through the use of a cochlear
implant, we all have analog ears. Thenk-kew.
--

JR