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Post by Cole D on May 29, 2018 22:24:06 GMT -5
Do you guys still use a land line or do you use cell phones for all? At my house we have Comcast for our phone and internet, so not hooked into the underground phone line anymore. But Comcast does use our phone jacks and wiring inside the house, for the phone and internet. It's backfed from the router into the phone jack. Also I use the Uniden cordless phone with cell link sometimes if I make calls from my cell phone. With that I can call either over land line or my cell phone with Bluetooth or take calls from either, from the same handset.
I hear about people tearing out the phone lines but to me that seems wasteful/destructive. I mean, even if you don't use the phone line someone else might need it in the future. And even if not, how do they connect to the internet unless it's all over Wi-Fi? Plus I heard someone the other day saying they painted their house and didn't bother to put the phone jack back on because they have cell phones. But to me it's just looks bad to have a hole in the wall with no cover, but then I'm OCD about that kind of stuff.
I'd prefer all of my wall outlet/cable TV/phone jack plates to be at same height/straight, etc. Honestly I'd change them all for white if I had the time but it's too much work. It would drive me crazy to come in an empty house and see broken or missing phone jacks with holes in the wall or broken cover plates. lol
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Post by fancollector12 on May 30, 2018 1:55:32 GMT -5
We have Verizon FiOs, so I guess that works over VOIP service... there's an ONT (Optical Network Terminal) mounted to the outside side of our house (near our HVAC units), and a BBU (Battery Backup Unit) in our basement that provides 8 hours of power in a power outage for our telephones... however, everything is still connected via the FiOs router (internet, TV, and phone).
We also have Verizon for cell service.
In terms of leaving the wall jacks intact if we DIDN'T have home service, I'd leave it in case I ever changed my mind, or else someone else wanted it in the future.
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Post by Jordan U on Jun 22, 2018 15:01:36 GMT -5
I still do, and always will, have a landline telephone.. I am currently using the Google Voice VoIP service.. The copper lines had better sound quality and greater reliability, but the cost of them is just too high..
While I don't really see a point in removing the wires, I don't think they're ever going to be used again.. They're only going to get more and more obsolete as time goes on due to their bandwidth limitations.. As much as I'd prefer a POTS lanldine service to VoIP, it's just not a practical option anymore..
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Post by Cole D on Jun 23, 2018 10:45:13 GMT -5
True, although even with VoIP you can still use the wiring and jacks to backfeed into from the router, like I have here.
My router is supposed to have a battery backup, but it doesn't seem to work. As soon as the power goes off the lines are dead. I suppose I could see if they'll replace the battery pack, but even when it was a new router it didn't work.
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Post by Jordan U on Jun 24, 2018 17:51:23 GMT -5
That's true, I do that too..
The Arris phone modem I have has a battery backup in it.. I don't think it lasts more than a few hours though.. I have to question why they even bothered to put in the battery backup since most people only have a cordless phone now..
Perhaps the battery was never installed correctly, or wasn't initialized.. The best option is probably to get a UPS and plug everything in there instead, because the router isn't real useful unless the modem is powered up also..
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Post by Cole D on Jun 25, 2018 21:13:30 GMT -5
I don't know why I said router, I meant the modem itself, which is a router also but yeah. I have that and the separate wireless router. Its funny because Comcast goes off whenever there's a power outage but if we were still on land line we'd probably still have service. There's one of those gray battery box things down the street that says 'Alpha' on it. I'm assuming that's a phone backup battery pack and not cable. I remember there was one there before that said 'Lectro' on it. At least I think there's a battery pack, you can hear a whirring like noise if you're near it.
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Post by Jordan U on Jun 26, 2018 9:48:47 GMT -5
Those boxes on the poles probably are a battery backup.. The old copper phone lines were self-powered, so there was no need for the battery backup.. When the power went out, everything worked as normal.. Now with the VoIP, you rely on modems not only in your house but also on the telephone poles to transfer the data.. It's unfortunate in a way, because even if you have a battery backup in your house, you're still not guaranteed a connection..
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Post by Cole D on Jun 27, 2018 17:04:37 GMT -5
These boxes are on the ground, but I guess some are on poles in some places.
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