[BC] Telephone--what's a telephone?

[RobertM]

There is so much misinformation in this discussion it is hard to know where to start. 

First, digital. Our phones have for the most part been digital for the last 50 years ever since TDM trunks replaced FDM in the 60s. That was G.711 7bit digital. G.711 is still one of the VOIP standard codecs but uses all 8 bits. With many VOIP providers G.722 is another available codec thus offering better quality than previously available. Although it is true that older cell phones used codecs that were as low as 8 KBPS, compared to the 56 Kbps used by landline G.711 codecs, could sound pretty bad but a number of current phones offer G.722 when supported by the far end. I do not accept the loss of quality argument. 

Loss of copper..... Phone companies have already been doing this for a long time since the FCC required them to make existing infrastructure available to competitors. Often new fiber to home installs result in the removal of copper lines never to be replaced. Then there is the post Sandy fight currently being waged in parts of Long Island and parts of the Jersey shore where Verizon is attempting to permanently replace destroyed wired plant with what appears to be a kind of dedicated cellular system that does not work with regular FAX machines or credit card readers. I see the last mile being whatever makes technical and economic sense. In many cases this would remain the existing copper plant. 

Reliability......regardless of the technology outside plant is a single point of failure. Beyond that theoretically the CO to CO model is a bigger string of potential failures than a mesh IP network although due to the grade of construction it is not really an issue. Backhoe fade affects either technology equally since fiber is pretty much a universal backbone although with IP if the mesh actually traverses different paths, backhoe fade is less of an issue. 

I would not equate VOIP with the open Internet as there are many private IP networks in operation including companies like Netflix that uses privAte networks to deliver content to numerous ISPs. It is doubtful that a major telco operation would have an open network and there are many potential tariff issues  if they did. 

Regarding battery power, a vast number of people are connected via SLICS and have not had CO battery for decades. Most depend on whatever backup is at either the SLIC or their home fiber interface. In the case of FIOS, the backup capacity exceeds thAt of most connected devices. Even CO battery is not always what it is thought to be. 10 years ago during the last Northeast blackout a lot of midtown NYC telephone was out much longer than the power. Generator maintenance had been reduced and while the CO batteries worked there was no air conditioning and the CO equipment cooked. 

I personally like VOIP and have moved from Vonage which is quasi IP to a real SIP provider, Callcentric. The features are so much better and 7 lines cost a total $5.85 per month plus 1.5 cents per minute outbound. I can access it from multiple devices any where in the world for no extra cost. Also, one number finds me anywhere if I want you to. There is so much more for less, it is hard to enumerate everything. By contrast even over FIOS, the telephone is still pots, not IP, and does not offer enhanced services. I would suspect cable triple play packages are similar.

What ATT is really doing is replacing CO switching and TDM trunks with a more efficient use of resources. 

As a side note, only 5% of the population are still using POTS. 

 

> On Nov 22, 2013, at 10:47 AM, "Powell E. Way III" <w4opw at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> B-b-b-b-b-but  Tom!  Where I live, that would be no service at all. As the country song goes..... What Part of No Don't You Understand?      <sigh!>  
> 
> *:(( crying
> 
> Could be a phoneless Powell  ( cell service is spotty at *best*)