Agree, which is the secondary reason I have a POTS phone line -- power. I know that my Qwest land line will work if the power goes out. Now, cell phones will work too, so in areas of good coverage, the power-related reason to keep a regular land line is greatly reduced. The last great reason to have a land line is for 911 service, but with the pressure on the cellular providers to make that work, I'm guessing the presence of land lines as we currently know them will be dramatically reduced within the next 5 years.
Cheers, Don -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2007 10:39 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Treo] Sprint Introduces Airave To Help Weak Reception I think that the point i wanted to make was that the cable company will only tell you it's VOIP if you ask. As I view it, one of the negatives of phone service from cable is that the user has to have their own backup power supply in case of an outage on the grid. The conventional landline phone system provides its own power. Comcast says they include a power supply but its capacity is limited; and, their reps haven't said or don't know how many minutes. To me, the dependability of a conventional land line is important. -- Larry Hess, CPA | Albuquerque, NM On 9/23/07, Levi Wallach <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > All I can say is that VOIP was never mentioned in any literature or > information I've gotten, and the phone acts identically. The reception has > never been anything other than what it was with the phone company. So if > it's VOIP, then it's an extremely good implementation of it... > > Levi > > ________________________________ > > From: [email protected] on behalf of Don Ferguson > Sent: Sun 9/23/2007 11:02 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: RE: [Treo] Sprint Introduces Airave To Help Weak Reception > > > > Yes, that's true, but it's still VOIP - you just don't see it because > your house's phone wiring itself is hooked to the analog adapter so all > the internal devices get to behave as they always have. On the outside, > it's VOIP. The benefit to this vs., say, Vonage, is that in your case > Cox is managing the whole thing and therefore the potential downsides of > VOIP (interference by the data side, being the biggest), is managed for > you. > > Cheers, > Don > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of > Levi Wallach > Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2007 8:21 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: RE: [Treo] Sprint Introduces Airave To Help Weak Reception > > Nope, Cox is through the cable and then they put some kind of > adapter/converter onto your regular switchbox outside your house so that > it's transparent - all your phones just act like they've always done. > I've found that it is pretty much identical to Verizon, whereas when we > had VOIP it was very different both in terms of features and reception > (although as I mentioned the reception may have been mostly an issue > with our portable phones)... > > Levi > > ________________________________ > > From: [email protected] on behalf of [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Sun 9/23/2007 9:55 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [Treo] Sprint Introduces Airave To Help Weak Reception > > > > The phone service that Comcast sells is VOIP, although they only tell > you > that you ask. Is Cox the same? > -- > Larry Hess, CPA | Albuquerque, NM > > > On 9/23/07, Levi Wallach <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > It's definitely interesting. We currently have an unlimited landline > > through our cable company (Cox). Perhaps we could go back to our old > > emergency landline (mainly for emergencies and for our alarm system) > and > > replace it with this? I'll have to look into this more. One question > - can > > one travel with this? I would think this would be a big advantage so > that > > you could get unlimited calling wherever you go, and deal with areas > where > > the reception isn't great. But will this work in areas where there > just > > aren't any cell towers anywhere near? I'm assuming it probably also > won't > > work in other countries that don't have CDMA service at all? > > > > ________________________________ > > > > From: [email protected] on behalf of Don Ferguson > > Sent: Sat 9/22/2007 9:21 PM > > To: [email protected] > > Subject: RE: [Treo] Sprint Introduces Airave To Help Weak Reception > > > > > > > > Well, we'll find out soon since I just picked one up. > > > > My view of it is a little less cynical, though. Since I'm in the test > > market (Denver) I get the device for free. I will now be paying > > $15/month for unlimited calling while I'm connected to my own little > > cell tower in my house. They say it covers 5000 square feet. The > > footprint of the first floor of my house is 2300 square feet, so I'm > > assuming this will work outside to some extent as well. > > > > As a practical matter, that means I can: > > > > 1. Reduce my cellular plan by the number of minutes I typically use > the > > cell phone from home. > > > > 2. Finally eliminate my second line at home since I'll not only get a > > strong, consistent 5-bar signal inside my house, but get all calls > > included in the $15. > > > > 3. Possibly eliminate my primary home line at some point since this > > service has a GPS-based e911 component. > > > > In addition, although this doesn't apply to me, this could also allow > a > > Sprint user with NO reception at home or another location to make > > unlimited calls from that location. A rural mountain user here in > > Colorado, for instance, could have Sprint service at home even where > > there is no cellular coverage, and the pick up the regular Sprint > > network upon entering "civilization". > > > > I will probably always have a land line of some sort since my burglar > > alarm uses one, but even now that line has been reduced to just a > > $15/month basic line with no extras. I have VOIP lines that I > actually > > use (Vonage and Broadvoice) and I have to say that cellular compares > > very well in call quality to them. Now that the "cell tower" will be > > right in the house, from the phone's point of view, battery > consumption > > should be reduced on the Treo as well as it won't have to reach very > > hard for a signal. > > > > I see this as analogous in purpose, but not implementation, to the > > T-Mobile [EMAIL PROTECTED] service: both are targeted at allowing people > to > > eliminate a home line. Each has strengths: Sprint's offering works > > with all Sprint CDMA phones, not just a limited set of special phones. > > T-Mobile's offering can work anywhere (especially at Starbucks or > other > > hotspot) there's a wifi network, not just at one location. > > > > In an office/home environment, however, since the Sprint device is not > > limited to just one phone, one could have a home one of these and an > > office one, and do unlimited calls at those two locations for > $15/month > > each. Depends on how one uses the setup, I guess, as to which way to > > go, but at $15/month this will pay for itself, for me. > > > > Cheers, > > Don > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of > > john.messeder > > Sent: Saturday, September 22, 2007 8:15 AM > > To: [email protected] > > Subject: Re: [Treo] Sprint Introduces Airave To Help Weak Reception > > > > That was the first thought I had - a new sales approach: instead of > > great service for everyone, Sprint has opted for service /a la carte/. > > > > Lio wrote: > > > > > > Or are they just charging you for bad service > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Yahoo! Groups Links
