Saturday, August 16, 2014

Is a telco land line as robust as it used to be?

Is it still worth the expense to have a traditional telephone company land line for home communication redundancy?

I've always liked having the copper hard wire service, but it's pricey now compared to alternatives.

We have cell phone service with two carriers, as well as an Internet VoIP line which works plenty fine at just ten bucks a month.

In the present day and age, how much of an alternative is mainline phone company service? Our area is served by AT&T, which acquired the former BellSouth platform.

Once it leaves the  neighborhood switching box, how much of the old Bell System is still the old system, how much now gets converted to something  like VoIP once it get to a switching office? Is the system more secure, more robust than a VoIP rig working off high speed cable Internet?

If there's still true redundancy, I still like the telco land line as a last ditch communication back-up.

I just want to know if the back-up potential it used to have still exists to the extent to justify the expense.

1 comment:

  1. Telephone company phone lines work off their own power, and often remain in service during power company outages. Cell phone towers may have battery backup, but that's a short term proposition. If depending on a phone line in a backout, be sure to have a least one phone in the house (or office) that doesn't require being plugged in to a power outlet.

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