There is no guarantee as to whether a power outage is short or not. I do remember seeing generators chained to posts for a few days after the hurricane passed through. A week without power is not that unheard of in some areas of the country.
It is my plan to keep a POTS line in addition to a FIOS line but you need to ask very carefully to make sure they leave the POTS line in service. I think of it as an opportunity to leave all my junk callers on a line that only rings in an answering machine. On 8/7/07, Art Clemons <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > John Duncan Yoyo: > > It's not that I would switch from FIOS for data services but I don't > > trust the fiber phone lines in an emergency where the power is lost. > > I want my plain old copper phone lines to stay. > > I'm not sure how long 48 Volt Battery powered copper lines are going to > remain viable. ATT for example now has its fiber to a node setup and > then copper from the node. If the power failed, you would still be > dependent on a rather small emergency power plan and the same problem. > It would likely be cheaper for Verizon to do the same thing in cities, > run fiber most of the way, then skip wiring the rest. It would however > leave you without phone service in a relatively short period of time > during a power failure. > > > The FIOS phone is powered in your house. There is a small battery > > backup in the system that will keep your phone going for a few hours > > but after that nothing. > > > > The POTS- plain old telephone service is powered by the phone company > > and tends to stay up in emergencies better than the power grid. The > > phone company is good at keeping the phone system running. When we > > lost power for around 24 hours in the Hurricane a few years ago the > > phone worked. > > > > The easy solution is to have a 2nd phone line, you don't need long > distance service or even touchtone service, just a phone that doesn't > require electricity to work. When you get FIOS, just leave the 2nd line > as is and you've still got copper running to the home in case you hate > FIOS. Me personally, I want FIOS, the people I know with it have better > and quieter phone service than I have with copper and their internet > service works better than mine too. Besides I also know folks with > cable phone provided, they face the same problems as someone with FIOS. > > > ************************************************************************ > * ==> QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in <== > * ==> the body of an email & send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <== > * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name > * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST > * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L > * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress > * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ************************************************************************ > * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml > * Messages bearing the header "X-No-Archive: yes" will not be archived > ************************************************************************ > -- John Duncan Yoyo -------------------------------o) ************************************************************************ * ==> QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in <== * ==> the body of an email & send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <== * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************************************************ * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header "X-No-Archive: yes" will not be archived ************************************************************************
