Dumb phone questions

[Patty Hann]

@Rich Englehardt....I have Cox...download speed is about 70Mbps (at best).
And you are right, I could switch my phone to the Cox lines.

But here is something that a lot of people forget: with the "Phone company" LL I will never lose service when I lose electrical power.
For those living in AZ, especially the lower elevations, I will say just one word: Monsoon.
Power goes out and I still have a phone.**
And Cox has said that if a customer loses power the Cox equipment won't work.

Yes, folks with cell phones (and only cell phones) also have power...until the battery dies. Then they charge it from their car battery... but I'm not keen on that either.
As people age (and I'm no spring chicken) they often give up driving, and so give up their car(s). So now they don't even have the car battery to use (just looking ahead...)


**Power has never gone out throughout the entire metro area which is sprawling.
If a Century Link hub is shut down for whatever reason, service is handled by another section.
IN 40 years I have never lost LL phone service.
It's kind of reassuring; until the CenturyLink infrastructure (in my neighborhood) completely fails I will keep the LL.

[Jim Koepke]

But here is something that a lot of people forget: with the "Phone company" LL I will never lose service when I lose electrical power.

A few years ago, about five miles from my home, a car hit a pole knocking out the power and phones. The power was back in hours. The phones were out for a few days. Our service comes through fiber optic to a nearby field unit. The car hit the pole with such force it stretched the cable and kinked the fiber to the point of it not being able to transmit light. Very odd, but $#!+ happens.

jtk

[Patty Hann]

A few years ago, about five miles from my home, a car hit a pole knocking out the power and phones. The power was back in hours. The phones were out for a few days. Our service comes through fiber optic to a nearby field unit. The car hit the pole with such force it stretched the cable and kinked the fiber to the point of it not being able to transmit light. Very odd, but $#!+ happens.
jtk

Most of the phone lines here are underground...not saying that NOTHING will throttle the LL...only that typical [Phoenix area] power outages won't...and haven't, at least not where I live.
The whole metro grid would have to go down for that happen.

[Jim Koepke]

Most of the phone lines here are underground...not saying that NOTHING will throttle the LL...only that typical [Phoenix area] power outages won't...and haven't, at least not where I live.
The whole metro grid would have to go down for that happen.

Locally our phone and electric is underground. Some of it was underground near the crash site. It was above ground at the end of town and where the highway starts to run alongside the Columbia River.

The car hit a pole right where the fiber cable comes above ground. It actually pulled some of the cable out of the underground. When I saw the splicers working on the cable there were still parts of the car laying around. This was a day or so after the accident.

jtk

[Patty Hann]

Locally our phone and electric is underground. Some of it was underground near the crash site. It was above ground at the end of town and where the highway starts to run alongside the Columbia River.

The car hit a pole right where the fiber cable comes above ground. It actually pulled some of the cable out of the underground. When I saw the splicers working on the cable there were still parts of the car laying around. This was a day or so after the accident.

jtk

What I do have near me is one of the power substations. During monsoon, and also other times of the year, but especially during monsoon, there will be this really loud BANG (typically on the heels of a really spectacular lightning bolt) .... and then all the lights go out.
First thing I do is check the phone...yep, dial tone still there. I've concluded that Century Link power is from a source closer in to the city of Phoenix itself.

[Curt Harms]

You say you use a LL (land line) at home?

What sort of internet connection to you have at home?

We replaced our land line 15 years or so ago with an Ooma device. It's an IP (internet) phone that you only pay the taxes on every month and not any of the phone company garbage.
Out phone bill at the time we replaced it ran us about $27 a month, not including long distance charges.
We bough the Ooma for $99, plugged it in and did the simple install.
From then on, we just had to pay something like $3.50 a month - with no long distance charges.

We slowly got rid of it and finally, last September when we moved into a new house, we disconnected it.

The thing is one of those - Kreg Pocket Hole jigs - something that just simply does exactly what it's supposed to do and it does it well.

+1 for Ooma. It has a bunch of tricks I never took the time to figure out. Wife doesn't want to know about cell phones as primary phone though she has a cell phone for emergencies.

[Jerome Stanek]

That might work .. it's just a little more than I'm paying now and there are more total minutes.

I see that HSN has 2 different phones one is a dumb phone and the other isa smart phone. Both are $39.99 with 1500 minutes text and data. I saw an ad for 15% off first orders also.

[Curt Harms]

OK...I remember that scenario when my friends would be really annoyed because, in order to get the phone they wanted, they had to sign up with a company they didn't like.
Good to know... all the ones I saw were unlocked.

I think phone companies have to unlock their phones after a certain period of time using the phone on their service. For example, if I had a phone locked to AT&T and paid for AT&T service for the required time, for example 6 months, I could call AT&T and they would give me an unlock code.

[Bill George]

Land line power.

When we lost power for nearly a week 4 years ago. No LL but a small 40 watt solar panel kept our cell phones charged fine.

Since then I now have 800 watt solar setup with batteries and DC to AC heavy duty invertor. I do also have a new gas generator but you can not always buy gas.

[Jim Becker]

I think phone companies have to unlock their phones after a certain period of time using the phone on their service. For example, if I had a phone locked to AT&T and paid for AT&T service for the required time, for example 6 months, I could call AT&T and they would give me an unlock code.

They will unlock once one is out of any kind of "contract" and the phone is paid off if it was purchased from the carrier on a monthly plan. The way to avoid that totally is to only buy unlocked phones, such as direct from the manufacturer or an independent seller. But there was a time "back in the day" that a carrier sometimes surreptitiously locked an unlocked phone to keep the service in force for the entire contract length...and many folks never knew about it until they tried to change carriers.

[Jerome Stanek]

You may also want to check out Page Plus service. $10 plus tax for 120 days service.

[Patty Hann]

Land line power.

When we lost power for nearly a week 4 years ago. No LL but a small 40 watt solar panel kept our cell phones charged fine.

Since then I now have 800 watt solar setup with batteries and DC to AC heavy duty invertor. I do also have a new gas generator but you can not always buy gas.

I live where the sun shines about 300 days out of the year...maybe I should do the small solar panel for emergencies.

[Patty Hann]

+1 for Ooma. It has a bunch of tricks I never took the time to figure out. Wife doesn't want to know about cell phones as primary phone though she has a cell phone for emergencies.

+1 for your wife... a woman after my own heart.

[Brian Tymchak]

I think phone companies have to unlock their phones after a certain period of time using the phone on their service. For example, if I had a phone locked to AT&T and paid for AT&T service for the required time, for example 6 months, I could call AT&T and they would give me an unlock code.

I think that's true. Just bought a couple phones from Consumer Cellular, and I read somewhere on their site that they would unlock after 6 months.

[Jim Koepke]

What I do have near me is one of the power substations. During monsoon, and also other times of the year, but especially during monsoon, there will be this really loud BANG (typically on the heels of a really spectacular lightning bolt) .... and then all the lights go out.
First thing I do is check the phone...yep, dial tone still there. I've concluded that Century Link power is from a source closer in to the city of Phoenix itself.

Most phone company Central Offices (at least in the old Bell System) run off of large batteries. They are not affected much by a power outage. I used to work for a phone company at one time. There was an earthquake and the uninsulated copper conductors from the batteries bumped together and shut down phone service in the area. A bunch of managers were in chewing out the people in the CO when an aftershock hit and caused the conductors to arc again. There was some redesign afterwards to stop it from repeating again.

jtk