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Cable Telephone Service
I like to know what type of experices others have had Charter phone
service and Charter High-Speed internet. We are going to leave SBC due to fact that the can not fix cross wire in theier system. BTW we are in Saint Louis Thanks for all the help jim |
#2
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ECKHARDT wrote:
I like to know what type of experiences others have had Charter phone service and Charter High-Speed internet. We are going to leave SBC due to fact that the can not fix cross wire in theier system. BTW we are in Saint Louis Thanks for all the help jim Jim Be aware that cable phone service is dependent on electric power for continuity of service. When you loose electric power you will be without telephone service. If you put your home equipment on an Uninterruptible Power Supply, or UPS, then your phone will work for as long as the UPS battery and the batteries in your cable companies line amplifiers hold out. Once the line amplifiers' batteries go dead then there is nothing that you can do to keep your telephone service working. You should plan to have some sort of back up telephone service. Cell phones may serve if the cell sites near your home have long duration batteries or emergency generators. Keeping one telephone line with the baby bell carrier is another way to assure service. POTS, or plain old telephone service, is powered by battery current over the copper wires from the exchange. Even if there is a controlled environment vault (CEV) between you and the exchange those vaults have seventy two hours of battery capacity and they are equipped with a portable generator connection. The baby bells are pretty good at maintaining service continuity under power failure conditions. For POTS service to work for you under power failure conditions you must have at least one phone in your home that does not require electrical power. A cordless phone will not work without electric power at your home. In the aftermath of hurricane Isabelle we were without power for eight days. Our neighbors who had cable telephone service lost their phone service after the first full day without power. My Verizon service never faltered. Even my DSL service worked when I powered the modem from an inverter and connected in my lap top with the battery charged from a car adapter. -- Tom H |
#3
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Someone named ECKHARDT Proclaimed on Sat, 02
Oct 2004 14:00:12 GMT, I like to know what type of experices others have had Charter phone service and Charter High-Speed internet. We are going to leave SBC due to fact that the can not fix cross wire in theier system. BTW we are in Saint Louis If you have a monitored security system it may *not* be able to dial out with that service. -Graham Remove the 'snails' from my email |
#4
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G. Morgan wrote:
Someone named ECKHARDT Proclaimed on Sat, 02 Oct 2004 14:00:12 GMT, I like to know what type of experices others have had Charter phone service and Charter High-Speed internet. We are going to leave SBC due to fact that the can not fix cross wire in theier system. BTW we are in Saint Louis If you have a monitored security system it may *not* be able to dial out with that service. Why not? To everything downstream from the modem, the service looks exactly like a regular telephone service. |
#5
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Someone named "JerryMouse" Proclaimed on Sat, 2
Oct 2004 16:08:32 -0500, Why not? To everything downstream from the modem, the service looks exactly like a regular telephone service. Because it is VoIP service. The tones that are generated by ContactID and SIA (alarm transmission protocols) are in a frequency range that VoIP can sometimes not reproduce faithfully. The VoIP is designed for voice transmission. We're running into the same problem with services like Vonage too. -Graham Remove the 'snails' from my email |
#6
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G. Morgan wrote in message ...
Someone named ECKHARDT Proclaimed on Sat, 02 Oct 2004 14:00:12 GMT, I like to know what type of experices others have had Charter phone service and Charter High-Speed internet. We are going to leave SBC due to fact that the can not fix cross wire in theier system. BTW we are in Saint Louis If you have a monitored security system it may *not* be able to dial out with that service. -Graham Remove the 'snails' from my email Why wouldn't a monitored security system be able to dial out with internet phone service? The systems provided by the cable companies look like just a regular phone line from the phones in the house and the numbers are dialed the same way. The whole internet vs telco phone service issue is really not understood by most people. They think there is some big technology break through that leads to the cost savings. Like the internet is magically more efficient at moving bits around. The reality is, it's simply a tarrif avoidance issue. If internet calls were to be tarrifed like regular calls, most of the cost savings would disappear. For the average person today, I don't think it's worth it for several reasons. One is call quality. Internet calls get routed like all internet traffic, so you can't be sure what kind of quality you'll get on a given call. With telco calls you have a dedicated connection with guaranteed real-time delivery. There is the power outage issue. There is the issue of having to install a box that goes between your phone lines and the cable and one more piece of eqpt to go bad or to figure who's going to come fix it and for how much. And there is the issue of giving more business to cable companies, which most people don't like very much, one issue being customer service. I can see internet phone service being worthwhile if you do a lot of calls, especially international, but that's about it. |
#7
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I think some responders are confused. My cable company Comcast offers phone
service but it is separate from the internet service and not VOIP. It works well and you can dial out using a modem etc.. with VOIP most systems cannot handle a fax call or modem. Wayne "Chet Hayes" wrote in message om... G. Morgan wrote in message ... Someone named ECKHARDT Proclaimed on Sat, 02 Oct 2004 14:00:12 GMT, I like to know what type of experices others have had Charter phone service and Charter High-Speed internet. We are going to leave SBC due to fact that the can not fix cross wire in theier system. BTW we are in Saint Louis If you have a monitored security system it may *not* be able to dial out with that service. -Graham Remove the 'snails' from my email Why wouldn't a monitored security system be able to dial out with internet phone service? The systems provided by the cable companies look like just a regular phone line from the phones in the house and the numbers are dialed the same way. The whole internet vs telco phone service issue is really not understood by most people. They think there is some big technology break through that leads to the cost savings. Like the internet is magically more efficient at moving bits around. The reality is, it's simply a tarrif avoidance issue. If internet calls were to be tarrifed like regular calls, most of the cost savings would disappear. For the average person today, I don't think it's worth it for several reasons. One is call quality. Internet calls get routed like all internet traffic, so you can't be sure what kind of quality you'll get on a given call. With telco calls you have a dedicated connection with guaranteed real-time delivery. There is the power outage issue. There is the issue of having to install a box that goes between your phone lines and the cable and one more piece of eqpt to go bad or to figure who's going to come fix it and for how much. And there is the issue of giving more business to cable companies, which most people don't like very much, one issue being customer service. I can see internet phone service being worthwhile if you do a lot of calls, especially international, but that's about it. |
#8
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Someone named "wayne" Proclaimed on Sat, 02 Oct
2004 23:34:04 GMT, I think some responders are confused. My cable company Comcast offers phone service but it is separate from the internet service and not VOIP. So you're saying Comcast in your area offers *analog* phone service? -Graham Remove the 'snails' from my email |
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Actually it is "digital" phone service but not VOIP they have a box that
goes from the telephone junction box to the cable box and the signal is converted there. http://comcast.com/Support/Corp1/FAQ/Faq2_168_0.html Wayne "G. Morgan" wrote in message ... Someone named "wayne" Proclaimed on Sat, 02 Oct 2004 23:34:04 GMT, I think some responders are confused. My cable company Comcast offers phone service but it is separate from the internet service and not VOIP. So you're saying Comcast in your area offers *analog* phone service? -Graham Remove the 'snails' from my email |
#10
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"Chet Hayes" wrote in message There is the power outage issue. There is the issue of having to install a box that goes between your phone lines and the cable and one more piece of eqpt to go bad or to figure who's going to come fix it and for how much. That is a big issue. When power goes out, you usually still have phone service. It does not depend on just one wire from your house to the cable company. Phone lines can route themselves around trouble spots. My phone is much more reliable than my cable. |
#11
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#13
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"ECKHARDT" wrote:
I like to know what type of experices others have had Charter phone service and Charter High-Speed internet. We are going to leave SBC due to fact that the can not fix cross wire in theier system. BTW we are in Saint Louis As others have said, you probably want to keep at least a regular phone line for emergencies. (I have regular local calls, no long distance carrier (by the way, AT&T is EVIL); I place a local call to a computer to place long-distance calls via VOIP. If that went down, I could use a carrier access code in case of emergency...) That said, I just recently started using Charter High-Speed. I've only had it about a month so far, but I haven't had any problems at all. One thing to be aware of is that, when you call to sign up, they _only_ quote you their standard price--if you get a flier offering a better deal, or see something on their web site, you need to ask for it specifically. Seems a little screwy to me. -D. |
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