In alt.home.repair, on Thu, 27 Dec 2018 11:26:18 -0500, Peter
wrote:
On 12/27/2018 9:31 AM, trader_4 wrote:
On Thursday, December 27, 2018 at 8:09:44 AM UTC-5, Peter wrote:
On 12/27/2018 6:14 AM, devnull wrote:
On 12/27/18 5:15 AM, micky wrote:
Despite the stories I've heard about Verizon not wanting to fix coppper
lines, when I called last Wednesday afternooon, they came out on Friday
afternoon and it took* him 2 hours and he had to go back 90% of the way
to the exchange but he fixed it.* Got rid of the hum.
V repairs copper lines in areas where FiOS is not available yet.
But if FiOS is available, why bother?* Only a luddite would want slow
DSL/POTS over old copper lines.
If you lived in an area plagued by frequent and/or seasonal power
outages that last more than a few hours, you would feel differently.
We've lived in the same urban/suburban area and served by the same
electric company's infrastructure for more than 30 yrs. Until a few
years ago, we would frequently (at least monthly) experience power
outages of 8 hrs or more, even on a beautiful clear day without wind.
Spring thunderstorms and winter ice storms occasionally produced outages
lasting many days. Although our neighborhood had fiber optic service
installed early in the phase-in, we kept our POTS service. The only
time we lost phone service was when VZ "accidentally" cut our phone line
while excavating in our easement to run their fiber optic cables past
our house. (They promptly repaired the cut when I brought it to their
attention even though they denied knowing that they did it.) A "backup"
battery on a digital phone line only provides about 8 hrs of standby
service and 2 hrs of talk time. After that, the phone company takes no
responsibility.
Don't tell me I could get a generator or jury rig my own supplemental
batteries to keep the digital line alive longer.
A cell phone solves the phone problem during a power outage for the
majority of people who have them. Many homes have more than one today.
If the power outages are that bad, are you and the rest of the community
complaining to the public utility board? The power utility is the real
root of your problem.
There were LOTS of complaints, the State government got involved, fined
them, threatened even more fines and the power company suddenly started
a tree-trimming project,
Not only that, the trees are ugly now.
burying cables,
We've had buried phone and electric cables from the beginning, but a
month ago, the delivery man dropped off a half-dozen 6-foot boxes and
about 200 45-foot 4-inch plastic pipes, and some spools of wire. The
delivery-man said it was for upgrades. I think it's for some other
area but they store it on our land because it's convenient. They've used
4 of the boxes and about 80% of the pipe, but because I'm not out there
watching and following them, I don't know where. However they also did
some digging, with mini-excavators, at two spots in the n'hood. One of
them is on the island in the middle of the parking area, as far from any
house as is possible. That's strange because
afaik the electric power
runs through a tunnel right under the sidewalk that runs right in front
of the houses, not 30 feet out into the parking area.
For the last 3 or 4 days, even during working hours, the excavators have
been sitting there unused.
Another interesting story from 10 years ago. During a rain/wind storm a
big branch fell off a tree in the wooded area that surrounds the stream.
The branch landed on the phone cable that goes from the street outside
the n'hood into our n'hood where the cable goes down the pole at the
edge of the wooded area, and is buried from there on. When the branch
landed on the cable, it broke the phone pole, and the phone cable came
down, lying in the stream.
Even though the phone and the internet still worked, I dutifully called
the phone company to report this. Automated message line took the
message, but no feedback that they had the message, so a month later, I
called again. Three months after that, I called again. The cable was 3
or 4 inches under water most of the time and 3 or 4 feet under water
when it rained hard. After my 3rd call I gave up, and 3 years later
they came and fixed it. The phone, etc. worked fine the whole time.
replacing aging cables, etc.
and reliability has greatly improved. Of course the power company then
took those costs to the public utility board and promptly got a rate
increase to reimburse the power company. Of course we ended up with
higher rates just because the power company was forced to adhere to
expected standards of reliability. Utilities have a real racket going.
No matter what they do, the customer ends up paying and the
stock-holders get richer.