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The Telecom Digest for August 19, 2012
Volume 31 : Issue 198 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Re: fios questions (David Lesher)
Re: fios questions (Pete Cresswell)
Re: fios questions (David Scheidt)
Re: Any Non-free SMS Gateways for e-mail to SMS on Wireless Carriers (Joseph Singer)

====== 30 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======

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Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2012 18:01:19 +0000 (UTC)
From: David Lesher <wb8foz@panix.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: fios questions 
Message-ID: <k0m0tf$j6p$1@reader1.panix.com>

Michael <michael.muderick@gmail.com> writes:

>I may finally make the switch from copper/DSL to FIOS.  I have
>a couple of questions.

>I use many of the older Western electric/ATT phones in my
>house.  They work with the old 90volt ringers.  Will there be
>any problems with FIOS regarding this?

FIOS does generate real ring voltage, maybe not a full 130V RMS
but enough for multiple 2500 sets. I assume it's 20 not 30 Hz
but have not measured it. Kudos on owning the best phones ever
made.

>How about the polarity sensitive dials?  Will they still work?
>Will they still be polarity sensitive?

That they will; hook them up correctly & they will work fine.
An ONT is not a step-office; it won't reverse polarity upon
supervision.

>What about the backup battery in the FIOS box.?  Does it need
>regular replacing? How often?  Does Verizon charge for that?
>How long does it last in a power failure?  Thanks so much for
>your answers.

The 2nd weakest aspect of FIOS is this. First, you are stuck
buying new ones & installing them. Second, it lasts a few
hours at most. What to do? Verizontal will never let you keep
a POTS connection. They used to but now will laugh at you
for trying. (You can only do so with a separate account in a
different name.) If you live in an isolated area subject to long
power failures, such as the 2 million people in Metro DC who
were out for 4 days, then you will be SOL.

Note the ONT battery is an ordinary 13.8V one; there is nothing
technically wrong with instead using a Wal-Mart 75A-H deep cycle
battery, except you need to make the wires longer. (And the
issue of spilling the battery, and such.) Don't tell
Verizontal, of course....

Also note that when Reddy Kilowatt goes to sleep, you lose TV
and Internet, battery or not. Some people think they thus should
use a UPS to keep such going, but most UPSi have run times of a
few hours at best, and the efficiency of using AC to make DC to
turn back into AC so the ONT PSU can make DC....well guess.

Oh, the weakest aspect? Billing; they will be jacking up prices
and changing rates and misbilling you monthly. Expect lots of
pressure to upgrade, upgrade, upgrade. She will also want you to
drop your regulated phone service in favor of her stepsister's
VOIP offering.

-- 
A host is a host from coast to coast.................wb8foz@nrk.com
& no one will talk to a host that's close........[v].(301) 56-LINUX
Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433
is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433




Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2012 13:29:09 -0400
From: Pete Cresswell <PeteCress@invalid.telecom-digest.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: fios questions  
Message-ID: <dmvs28l66he159kbjg5m8t3or1h0db5dms@4ax.com>

Per Michael:
> What about the backup battery in the FIOS box.?
>Does it need regular replacing?

It's a matter of years, but I can't recall how many.

You pay, you replace....

Which segues into location:  you want to lean on the FIOS guy to
locate the indoor boxes in a place that is easy for you to get
to.

Our first install, they hid it in the crawl space... Bad Idea. -)

On the second install (I can't recall what I said/did to get them
to re-install but somehow they did it for no charge...) I had
them put it in the rec room closet that also serves as my
LAN/Server closet.  Good Idea...  
-- 
Pete Cresswell




Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2012 20:20:24 +0000 (UTC)
From: David Scheidt <dscheidt@panix.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: fios questions 
Message-ID: <k0m928$br5$1@reader1.panix.com>

HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org> wrote:
:On Aug 17, 5:18 am, Michael <michael.muder...@gmail.com> wrote:
:> What about the backup battery in the FIOS box.?
:> Does it need regular replacing? How often?  Does Verizon charge for
:> that?  How long does it last in a power failure?

:A friend with FIOS says the backup battery lasts about three hours in
:a power failure.  Unfortunately, when a severe storm knocks out power
:for much longer periods there is no phone service until power is
:restored.  Friends with cable-TV provided phone service also report no
:phone service during power outages.  FWIW  my traditional land-line
:has always remained available even during extended power outages.

That depends on where you are, and where you line is terminated.  In
many places, wires to the CO have largely been replaced with cables or
fiber to a box in the neighborhood, that requires power.  There is, or
is supposed to be, battery backup in it, but how long it lasts is a
crap shoot.  In small outages, the telco can drive a generator trailer
up to it, and it bigger, but still small, outages, can drive around
and swap batteries.  But in area wide outage, you're probably out of
luck.

-- 
sig 2




Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2012 11:52:07 -0700 (PDT)
From: Joseph Singer <joeofseattle@yahoo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Any Non-free SMS Gateways for e-mail to SMS on Wireless  Carriers 
Message-ID: <1345229527.46896.YahooMailClassic@web121406.mail.ne1.yahoo.com>

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 18:17:42 -0700 <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote:

> While most wireless carriers have a free SMS gateway 
> so you can send an SMS to a phone via e-mail, not all 
> do. I.e. on Verizon where you can send an e-mail to 
> 4085551212@vtext.com and it sends the e-mail as an SMS
> to the phone (at least the first 160 characters of it).
> 
> I was looking for a paid service that would accept e-mail 
> messages forwarded from my Gmail account and send the 
> e-mail as an SMS to a phone on a foreign (non-U.S.) wireless 
> carrier that lacks an SMS gateway.

Look at this and see if any of these services do what you want:

http://www.connectotel.com/
(main website address) or maybe this:

http://www.connectotel.com/sms/mmail.html
or this:

http://www.connectotel.com/sms/ctsmsgat.html

Oh, and something you need to know about carrier specific 
gateways that use 10-digits@[mobile number gateway] is 
that they only let you use 140 characters rather than 
160 character limit you have with a regular phone-to-phone SMS.






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