VOIP Experience

dodge man · Dec 7, 2023

For 911 reasons the old land lines had to be kept up. The old land lines carried the power for the phones so if the power went off they kept working. I know when the power goes off now they have batteries in the nodes that keep things working. They have to run around with generators and keep things going after a period of time. Don’t ask me what a “node” is, I assume one of those bigger boxes you see along the road. I know one of the things my son does when time is available is open all the phone pedestals and boxes and check for mouse damage and put poison in them while avoiding wasps.

Furu · Dec 7, 2023

duffer said:
Not knowing your location, tough to recommend anything specific, but you should at least contact your cellular supplier to see if they have a "whole house" wifi system available for you. My Verizon cellular internet ran at about 40 mbps (avg). Used it for VOIP, 3 Firesticks, an ipad and a PC. Was pretty satisfied. Certainly enough not to have to shell out $600 for Starlink. Verizon now gives you the modem/router as part of the plan.

As was stated in the original post; your suggestion is not really a workable consideration as the cellular suppliers don't have enough signal to keep the cell phones working let alone data for internet at our current house.
At the build site in Montana we have to drive 10 miles to get a cell signal and we are less than a mile off a major state highway. Of course even interstate I-90 has 10-15 mile dead spots in Montana so it is not a unique problem.

Furu · Dec 7, 2023

dodge man said:
For 911 reasons the old land lines had to be kept up. The old land lines carried the power for the phones so if the power went off they kept working. I know when the power goes off now they have batteries in the nodes that keep things working. They have to run around with generators and keep things going after a period of time. Don’t ask me what a “node” is, I assume one of those bigger boxes you see along the road. I know one of the things my son does when time is available is open all the phone pedestals and boxes and check for mouse damage and put poison in them while avoiding wasps.

Sure there are batteries to keep things running (NOT). Even though the fiber ends many miles (over 6 miles) from our house and copper runs for the last 6+ miles when there is a power outage the hard wire phone line fails in less than 30 minutes . This has been the case ever since they started putting in fiber in the area (area defined as further than 6 miles away) This has been true for the last 10 years or so because the batteries are not maintained and there is not a large enough battery bank to keep it going.
Just found out that Centurylink is still "working the issue" so we will be without phone for at least 12 days. So glad I pay for a service that is not delivered by a public regulated utility that rips the consumer off. At least internet at a meg up and half a meg down works.