Chuck(G)
25k Member
December's ice storm taught me a lot about the reliability of telephone land lines.
Freezing rain for almost a week brought down trees all over the place (one hit the corner of our house and did a bit of demolition--but that's why we have insurance. We'll be getting a new roof and a paint job on the house among other things, so not a bad deal). And it also killed the power for a few days--the crews spent days taking trees off the 12KV feeder lines here--and we're only a half-mile from the substation).
We've kept a landline because we thought it was useful in emergencies. Silly us! Our telco "upgraded" our RTs with DLC (digital fiber feed). As a result, we've got about 2 hours of backup phone service. Not much comfort when power is out for days. So, what am I paying them for?
I ported both of our landline numbers to VOIPo, and got an Obihai OBI200 ATA box. Hooked in place of the telco feed, the phones in the house work great. (I also have a couple of GV numbers, but didn't want to rely on Google for regular phone service).
The bonus is very good junk call screening. I can go to my web-based control panel logs and see the junk callers getting rejected like a goa'uld hitting the closed iris of a star gate. About $140 for two years and very good technical support.
Next, I called CenturyLink, explaining the situation to them, canceling the phone service and taking advantage of a promo on 40Mbps internet for $29.95. Since I was clearly unhappy with the wired phone service, they tossed in a year's $10 monthly credit. So my cost after taxes will be about $23 per month.
Finally, since I use mobile phones very little, it was still a good idea to get a good deal on a backup. Verizon has the best coverage here, but I don't care for any of their plans, nor their hidden charges. I picked up a pay-as-you-go smartphone (An Alcatel One-touch) through PagePlus Cellular and a $10/month plan for 250 minutes talk and 250MB data. Not much, but I don't need much--and I can add minutes anytime I need to--and PPC uses the Verizon network. (Out here T-Mobile and AT&T really suck in terms of coverage).
So, all in all, fairly painless.
Freezing rain for almost a week brought down trees all over the place (one hit the corner of our house and did a bit of demolition--but that's why we have insurance. We'll be getting a new roof and a paint job on the house among other things, so not a bad deal). And it also killed the power for a few days--the crews spent days taking trees off the 12KV feeder lines here--and we're only a half-mile from the substation).
We've kept a landline because we thought it was useful in emergencies. Silly us! Our telco "upgraded" our RTs with DLC (digital fiber feed). As a result, we've got about 2 hours of backup phone service. Not much comfort when power is out for days. So, what am I paying them for?
I ported both of our landline numbers to VOIPo, and got an Obihai OBI200 ATA box. Hooked in place of the telco feed, the phones in the house work great. (I also have a couple of GV numbers, but didn't want to rely on Google for regular phone service).
The bonus is very good junk call screening. I can go to my web-based control panel logs and see the junk callers getting rejected like a goa'uld hitting the closed iris of a star gate. About $140 for two years and very good technical support.
Next, I called CenturyLink, explaining the situation to them, canceling the phone service and taking advantage of a promo on 40Mbps internet for $29.95. Since I was clearly unhappy with the wired phone service, they tossed in a year's $10 monthly credit. So my cost after taxes will be about $23 per month.
Finally, since I use mobile phones very little, it was still a good idea to get a good deal on a backup. Verizon has the best coverage here, but I don't care for any of their plans, nor their hidden charges. I picked up a pay-as-you-go smartphone (An Alcatel One-touch) through PagePlus Cellular and a $10/month plan for 250 minutes talk and 250MB data. Not much, but I don't need much--and I can add minutes anytime I need to--and PPC uses the Verizon network. (Out here T-Mobile and AT&T really suck in terms of coverage).
So, all in all, fairly painless.