On Sat, 15 Feb 2020 16:42:09 -0500, Clare Snyder
wrote:

On Sat, 15 Feb 2020 13:08:52 -0500, wrote:

On Sat, 15 Feb 2020 09:05:58 -0800 (PST), trader_4
wrote:

On Saturday, February 15, 2020 at 11:50:50 AM UTC-5, A K wrote:
On Friday, February 14, 2020 at 9:56:12 PM UTC-6, wrote:
On Fri, 14 Feb 2020 17:30:09 -0800 (PST), A K
wrote:


My landline is copper wires.

I like having a landline because it still works when a hurricane hits which can knock out cell towers.

Don't be too sanguine about that. I found out after Irma that my
"central office" a mile from the house, that allows me to have DSL is
a little battery operated box on the side of the road and you get
about 30 hours out of that battery. Then your phone and DSL is dead.
If they are kind enough to drop a generator there you are back ion
business but that took them almost a week. Some folks who knew the
score around here dragged a cord from their generator out to their box
and recharged the battery every day. (It is just a regular NEMA 5-15)
If it happens again, I am going to go up there and ask around.
Unfortunately, the places around that box are usually abandoned all
summer.

I live 200 feet from a Verizon brick and mortar "main office."

Andy

Then aren't they an alternative for DSL/phone or just DSL and use OOma
or similar for phone?

Once 5G rolls out I expect big mobile players to try to get everyone
on it and abandon any copper that is still left out there.
Most have "effectivel abandoned" all the copper already. The "main
trunk" runs along the back of my property and to replace it would
require tunnelling through a LOT of tree roots (almost a mile, end to
end across numeous properties) All the "spare pairs" have been used
and they cannot provide me (along with numerous others) a "clean
line". The phone was noisy and DSL was as low as 1MB so I switched to
Rogers (cable) and an OOMA box. Would have used the cheaper Magic Jack
but I could not port my existing phone number.

Ours are generally in the utility and road right of way and the
utilities generally deforest that whole 66' swath here in Florida.
There was a rumor 30 years ago that Sprint dropped fiber in the hole
in front of my house with the copper but these days they only mark two
lines. They used to mark 3 on a locate so I suspect the fiber may have
been damaged or simply abandoned. They bored the line to my house 30
years ago when the overhead drop was removed. It is a 3 pair flooded
cable.