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The Telecom Digest for April 05, 2011
Volume 30 : Issue 87 : "text" Format
====== 29 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== |
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See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details
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Date: Sun, 3 Apr 2011 20:21:39 -0400
From: "AJB Telecom" <ajbtelecom@frontier.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Does FiOS support rotary phones?
Message-ID: <000d01cbf25e$587659f0$01fea8c0@dell8100>
Our esteemed moderator wrote:
>The tech told me that the cable used "Moca" format, and when I asked
>how it compared to Docsis, he just said "It's better".
MoCA = Multimedia over Coax Alliance = definitely not FiOS
MoCA 2.0, which was rolled out in 2010, is capable of bitrates that are
fairly imperssive, but still not what FiOS can do. FiOS gives you
a QPAM digital TV stream with an effective channel bandwidth of 870
megahertz along with a 622 Mbps data channel in the downstream
direction, as well as a 155 Mbps data channel in the upstrem direction.
MoCA 2.0 can give a theoretical total throughput of around 800 Mbps,
and was intended primarily as an HDTV delivery method.
It is possible that the marketing department at Verizon has decided to
hang the FiOS moniker on all high-bitrate TV/Phone/Internet combo
offerings, but if that decision was made, it wasn't announced publicly.
[Or maybe I just wasn't paying attention.] I would be very interested
to know what it actually says on your sister's phone bill.
Wes Leatherock wrote:
>My wife and I may be a little old man and lady, but we have two
>so-called "decorator" phones that WE used to provide innards for.
>We have them not because we've always had them but because of their
>decorative aspect as part of the decor. They have rotary
>dials--anything else would be an anachronism.
>Oh, yes, we have several T-T phones, too--on the same line. We are
>AT&T customers.
Wes, forgive me - I had my tongue planted firmly in my cheek when
I spoke of the "quintessential little old lady." The truth is, I am
actually a cantankerous old coot, and my own phone of choice is in fact
a plain black Western Electric 500 set. The 500 was the first phone we
ever had way back when, and of course as a teen-ager I did not
appreciate how well made it was - I just took it for granted that it
could be dropped on the floor at least once a day and still work.
In the intervening decades, there was a seemingly endless parade of
cheap plastic phones that always seemed to fail at the worst possible
time. I have now come full circle, and refuse to buy any phone that
is not an original Western Electric. Friends and family members are
quite tired of hearing me tell them to "get a real phone."
Jim Bennett
**************************************************
Speaking from a secure undisclosed location.
Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2011 06:29:05 -0700 (PDT)
From: Wes Leatherock <wleathus@yahoo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Does FiOS support rotary phones?
Message-ID: <990626.10862.qm@web111717.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
--- On Sun, 4/3/11, AJB Telecom <ajbtelecom@frontier.com> wrote:
> Wes Leatherock wrote:
>>
>> My wife and I may be a little old man and lady, but we have two
>> so-called "decorator" phones that WE used to provide innards for.
>> We have them not because we've always had them but because of their
>> decorative aspect as part of the decor. They have rotary
>> dials--anything else would be an anachronism.
>>
>> Oh, yes, we have several T-T phones, too--on the same line. We are
>> AT&T customers.
>
> Wes, forgive me - I had my tongue planted firmly in my cheek when I
> spoke of the "quintessential little old lady." The truth is, I am
> actually a cantankerous old coot, and my own phone of choice is in
> fact a plain black Western Electric 500 set. The 500 was the first
> phone we ever had way back when, and of course as a teen-ager I did
> not appreciate how well made it was - I just took it for granted
> that it could be dropped on the floor at least once a day and still
> work.
>
> In the intervening decades, there was a seemingly endless parade of
> cheap plastic phones that always seemed to fail at the worst
> possible time. I have now come full circle, and refuse to buy any
> phone that is not an original Western Electric. Friends and family
> members are quite tired of hearing me tell them to "get a real
> phone."
We set out two or three years ago to get another phone but gave up
after we couldn't find anything even on the surface that was as robust
or as easy to use as a WE phone. I finally found one in the back of a
drawer that I'd forgotten about--a Trimline with the original round
buttons--and put it back into use.
Wes Leatherock
wleathus@yahoo.com
wesrock@aol.com
Date: Sun, 3 Apr 2011 22:16:40 -0500
From: John Mayson <john@mayson.us>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: 10 Hilarious Vintage Cellphone Commercials
Message-ID: <BANLkTikeg9_iKhMGR+52OLU+6-WhBaiLpg@mail.gmail.com>
I normally don't watch YouTube videos, much less pass them on, but
these ten are good. A true trip down memory lane. The last video is
particularly insightful.
http://mashable.com/2011/04/03/vintage-phone-commercials/
--
John Mayson <john@mayson.us>
Austin, Texas, USA
Date: Sun, 3 Apr 2011 18:18:46 -0700 (PDT)
From: Lisa or Jeff <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Does FiOS support rotary phones?
Message-ID: <986e76cb-96c2-44f6-965e-8e58e89fb3ef@k15g2000vbp.googlegroups.com>
On Apr 2, 10:18 pm, "Gary" <bogus-em...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> For MDU (multiple dwelling units), otherwise know as apartments, condos, or
> townhomes; a single ONT:MDU servers multiple homes (dwelling units). The
> connection from the ONT to the home is usually copper or coax. The ONT:MDU
> is typically installed in the telco or utility room if the building has one
> or outside near the old POTS demarc.
Interesting observation.
My condo complex (garden court style units) will not allow Verizon to
install FiOS in here because the condo says the necessary outside
boxes are ugly. (Indeed, even a FIOS sales rep warned that the
necessary outside box is large and may not be appreciated). But if
only one box per building (15 units) is needed then the box could
easily be easily be installed in the back, near the old Bell big
junction box.
I wonder if the condo misunderstood what Verizon wanted to do, or the
Verizon contact didn't explain it well. Both are entirely possible.
Many of us want FIOS to have some competition against the local cable
company, although admittedly, the FIOS TV service offerings and price
just happen to be the same as cable. How about that!
One other for us is commercial power reliability. Our power supply is
lousy. In a heavy thunderstorm or snowstorm, we can expect to lose
power. Usually it's only about 60-120 minutes, but in some bad storms
it was six hours. Friends who have FIOS told me their battery died
after four hours of outage.
(I also think the condo should get a generator for the clubhouse so at
least one place has power, but they won't do that.)
Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2011 02:44:57 +0000 (UTC)
From: moroney@world.std.spaamtrap.com (Michael Moroney)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Does FiOS support rotary phones?
Message-ID: <inbbb9$b69$2@pcls6.std.com>
>***** Moderator's Note *****
>I suppose it's possible that the cable which came in from the street
>was, in fact, a fiber-optic cable: the Verizon tech told me it was
>coaxial, but that might be a misnomer.
>The tech told me that the cable used "Moca" format, and when I asked
>how it compared to Docsis, he just said "It's better".
>I'll leave it to the experts to explain my confusion away.
I have FiOS. They did run fiber from the pole out front. I examined
the "cable" myself. Definitely not coax.
Date: 04 Apr 2011 03:07:56 GMT
From: Doug McIntyre <merlyn@geeks.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Label for PoE-powered device?
Message-ID: <4d99360c$0$87590$8046368a@newsreader.iphouse.net>
"Pete Cresswell" <x@y.Invalid.telecom-digest.org> writes:
>Per Doug McIntyre:
>>I've got ... IP cameras all deployed.
>I'm currently shopping.
>Is there a non-PTZ IP camera that's especially near-and-dear to
>your heart?
I deployed the AXIS 216FD, (Non PTZ, Does PoE at just under 2W,
variable iris). I'm very happy with the build quality and video quality.
Very well supported by lots of software, as well as direct view.
They have a ton of other models, each slightly different if you
wanted specific items. (ie. can go cheaper with a fixed iris, or
non PoE power devices, go more expensive with PTZ, or high-res).
Overall, I think I made a good choice after eval'ing many different lines.
***** Moderator's Note *****
PTZ means "Pan, Tilt, and Zoom".
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Mon, 04 Apr 2011 07:13:16 -0400
From: John Stahl <aljon@stny.rr.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Does FiOS support rotary phones?
Message-ID: <E8.00.22479.DC7A99D4@hrndva-omtalb.mail.rr.com>
>***** Moderator's Note *****
>
>I suppose it's possible that the cable which came in from the street
>was, in fact, a fiber-optic cable: the Verizon tech told me it was
>coaxial, but that might be a misnomer.
>
>The tech told me that the cable used "Moca" format, and when I asked
>how it compared to Docsis, he just said "It's better".
>
>I'll leave it to the experts to explain my confusion away.
>
>--
>Bill Horne
>Moderator
According to info gleaned from the Internet, the Verizon techie's
answer (above) that the house drop is "Moca" format instead of
fiber. seems to be based on yet another "service" which has industry
support through an organization. The organization known as Multimedia
over Coax Alliance (MoCA) which (according to their web site) has a
diverse corporation membership which includes equipment supplier
companies as: Broadcom, Cisco, Motorola, Panasonic, and Trident. Plus
has end users such as: Verizon, Comcast, Cox, and Echostar.
The web site address is: http://www.mocalliance.org/
The techie stuff on the site seems to indicate that the supplier of
"entertainment" services can utilize existing coax drops to the
premise thus (I guess) saving costs by not having to replace the last
connection drop. Since Verizon is a group member, it seems logical for
them to utilize this "standard" to help cut their installed costs.
John
______________________________
John Stahl
Aljon Enterprises
Data and Telecom Consultants
email: aljon-at-stny.rr.com
Date: 4 Apr 2011 10:05:22 -0400
From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Does FiOS support rotary phones?
Message-ID: <incj72$38f$1@panix2.panix.com>
Lisa or Jeff <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote:
>On Apr 1, 7:49 pm, "Gary" <bogus-em...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> There's one other way; experimentation! I've got FiOS with a Tellabs
>> ONT on the wall. I've got a 500 set in a box. I took the 500 set out
>> of the box, plugged it into one of my phone jacks. Guess what? I got
>> dial tone and was able to actually dial the phone. In other words,
>> it worked.
>
>Thanks for trying this out.
>
>A question if I may about FIOS service. Have you ever had a power
>failure, and if so, did you lose your FIOS service due to the battery
>going out (or some other reason)? I know people with FIOS who had a
>long power outage after a winter storm and lost their phone service.
A friend of mine has FiOS, up in Maryland. A year or so ago I visited him
and the FiOS box in the garage was flashing a red light saying the battery
needed replacing, which I pointed out to him. Last week I visited again, and
the light is still flashing and the battery has not been changed.
If you don't do scheduled maintenance, things break.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
Date: 4 Apr 2011 15:54:45 -0000
From: "John Levine" <johnl@iecc.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Does FiOS support rotary phones?
Message-ID: <20110404155445.14920.qmail@joyce.lan>
>A friend of mine has FiOS, up in Maryland. A year or so ago I visited him
>and the FiOS box in the garage was flashing a red light saying the battery
>needed replacing, which I pointed out to him. Last week I visited again, and
>the light is still flashing and the battery has not been changed.
>
>If you don't do scheduled maintenance, things break.
Right. Part of the attraction of FiOS, from VZ's point of view, is
that [they] foist off the responsibility for maintaining the battery
backup on the customer, who generally doesn't understand that until
it's too late.
I mentioned this to someone at our rural ILEC a while back, who was
flabbergasted that the telco wouldn't maintain the batteries. This is
hardly a new issue, [since] they changed out customer batteries all
the time in the early 1900s.
R's,
John
Date: Mon, 04 Apr 2011 15:24:02 -0400
From: Eric Tappert <e.tappert.spamnot@worldnet.att.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Does FiOS support rotary phones?
Message-ID: <1s5kp6dasu6noln1cecjtnterhj0hj5mql@4ax.com>
On 4 Apr 2011 15:54:45 -0000, "John Levine" <johnl@iecc.com> wrote:
>>A friend of mine has FiOS, up in Maryland. A year or so ago I visited him
>>and the FiOS box in the garage was flashing a red light saying the battery
>>needed replacing, which I pointed out to him. Last week I visited again, and
>>the light is still flashing and the battery has not been changed.
>>
>>If you don't do scheduled maintenance, things break.
>
>Right. Part of the attraction of FiOS, from VZ's point of view, is
>that [they] foist off the responsibility for maintaining the battery
>backup on the customer, who generally doesn't understand that until
>it's too late.
>
>I mentioned this to someone at our rural ILEC a while back, who was
>flabbergasted that the telco wouldn't maintain the batteries. This is
>hardly a new issue, [since] they changed out customer batteries all
>the time in the early 1900s.
>
>R's,
>John
Not having to change the batteries was the major reason to go to
central office battery in the early days. Saved a bundle on
maintenance costs, even more than the invention of the switch hook
saved (not turning off the phone was a major cause of battery
rundown...). The change was maintenance cost driven, not at all due
to customer convenience during power outages. Sending a craftsperson
out to change the batteries was expensive then and prohibitively
expensive today.
Somehow that perspective got twisted over the years. Of course today,
with the demise of police call boxes and Gamewell fire boxes, the
telephone has become the primary emergency communications means, so
operation in the absence of utility power may now be a public safety
issue...
Besides, providing premises power requires copper; fiber doesn't
transmit that level of power very well, so a separate copper plant
would have to be maintained. That would make FiOS an additional
infrastructure, not a replacement infrastructure. Going to fiber only
eliminates the expensive maintenance of the copper plant
(eventually...), thus the VZ requirement to give up the copper
connection if you subscribe to FiOS.
Such is progress.
ET
Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2011 11:34:59 -0500
From: John Mayson <john@mayson.us>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: New Austin area code confirmed to be hoax
Message-ID: <BANLkTimUmtLxdW6n3xuie+_Gb-ntrVO=qw@mail.gmail.com>
New Austin area code confirmed to be hoax
http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2011/04/01/new-austin-area-code-plan-confirmed-hoax.html?ana=handmark
Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2011 16:38:00 +0000 (UTC)
From: David Lesher <wb8foz@panix.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Does FiOS support rotary phones?
Message-ID: <incs58$5lr$1@reader1.panix.com>
>***** Moderator's Note *****
> I suppose it's possible that the cable which came in from the street
> was, in fact, a fiber-optic cable: the Verizon tech told me it was
> coaxial, but that might be a misnomer.
> The tech told me that the cable used "Moca" format, and when I asked
> how it compared to Docsis, he just said "It's better".
> I'll leave it to the experts to explain my confusion away.
He's the confused one....not you.
I see no way that Verizontal ever puts the ONT anywhere but inside the
residence, for a basic reason: what would power it out there on the
pole? Further, since it's the vict^H^H^H^H subscriber's job to not
just supply it power but also buy & install new batteries..who will
climb the pole...?
Obviously in a MDU, where there's one multiport unit; it's slightly
different. There, your unit does get POTS via existing twisted pair
and TV & TCP/IP via MOCA/coax.
They do use MOCA, but the reason to do so is to save time {money} on
installations. They need their Set Top Box to have both TV and TCP/IP
feeds; if it does not get TCP/IP, it can't sell you pay per view.
BUT, while the ONT can supply TCP/IP out either the RJ45 jacks
OR atop the coax via MOCA. it can not [do] both. And since there's
{presumably} coax to the TV now, but not CAT5, they started providing
routers with MOCA in, RJ45 out.
In fact, it's a screwy mess, as the router has to back-feed back
to the ONT to deliver TCP/IP via MOCA to the STB's. Somewhere
there's a good writeup on same.
I wonder if we're ever see a MOCA -> POTS adapter unit as well.
Unlikely.
Further, the first generation of MOCA "Actiontec" routers sucked
sharp rocks and brought howls. Later ones may be better; there
are now pages telling you how to turn the miserable Actiontecs
into a bridge where it does less damage.
As for power backup, I can't grasp why people are putting the
ONT's on a UPS. A UPS takes AC and makes DC to charge a battery
to later turn it back into AC again...so the ONT can make DC
from it. And loses efficiency at every step.
It's my understanding that all the ONT's have a 2nd battery
input, and if you feed it 13.8vdc, it runs. So go buy a big
"gel cell" or if you have the space, a 50AH deep cycle marine
battery; and a $5 trickle charger. THAT will keep you going when
Reddy Kilowatt goes on strike.
TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecom-
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