TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Should I Switch to Vonage?

Re: Should I Switch to Vonage?

Thor Lancelot Simon (tls@panix.com)
Tue, 9 May 2006 16:21:42 UTC

In article <telecom25.173.14@telecom-digest.org>,
Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com> wrote:

> It was a dark and stormy night when Herb Stein <herb@herbstein.com>
> wrote:

>> Had you been having a heart attack, it would have actually been your
>> LAST problem. And what's you option when the power goes out?

> There's all sorts of levels of service. What do you do if 911 doesn't
> work? (What would you have done before 911 was introduced?)

You would have dialed "0" for operator, and the operator would have
dispatched the emergency call.

> What do you do if the power is out?

If you have a traditional wireline phone, you do exactly what you do
if the power is not out; the telephone system is independent from
commercial power generation in this regard (power is supplied by
batteries at the central office; that's why it's 48VDC).

Voice over IP is not "a little less reliable"; it's enormously less
reliable. Despite this, I have Vonage service at my home; but, having
worked in telephony for a long time, I understand the risks. One
ought not minimize them for others who have less technical knowledge.

Thor Lancelot Simon tls@rek.tjls.com

"We cannot usually in social life pursue a single value or a single moral
aim, untroubled by the need to compromise with others." - H.L.A. Hart

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