On 12/30/2015 12:12 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
<awesome snippets of telco gear description snipped>
All of this has me wondering how long it's going to be before POTS
completely disappears from the infrastructure. I've been
experimenting with one of the Obihai VoIP boxes and have been
pleasantly surprised at the quality. I haven't tried yet to see if
the 554 rotary dial wall phones in my garage and shop will still
work. They were installed in 1980--so that ties this in with the
subject material.
I am not worthy of this conversation, but I will put in what little I can.
We were spoiled in South Dakota, as somehow (and I am sure someone knows
and will enlighten us/me) the rural telcos (LECs?) tapped into lots of
funds from somewhere to drop fiber to all of the rural homes. 50Mb was
the slowest speed, as I recall, for data. The catch was that you had to
buy a telephone service with your Internet, probably for some
legal/regulatory reason. But, it was cheap, and we bought just the
basics, and 50Mb was more than one could expect when you are 8 miles
from the nearest town and on a large acreage. So, in markets where this
type of service is offered, I think telcos will thrive.
When we moved to Iowa, we found a choice large acreage just minutes from
the edge of town, but POTS service was so expensive compared to our SD
options. We went with office grade cellular Internet (unlimited 4G) and
I bought one of those Internet to phone dongles for pennies online. In
a small twist, though, I disconnected our house telephone wiring from
the telco and simply plugged the dongle into our house telephone
wiring. Now, we have all the phones in the house connected to phone
service through our cellular connection.
I am sure it is not that original, but my touch phones don't know the
difference (like you, I have not tried my rotary with the extra long
cord), and it is $10.00/year versus $35.00/month for POTS.
Jim
--
Jim Brain
br...@jbrain.com
www.jbrain.com
