Quote
Originally posted by Derrick:
The common battery system for telephones was invented in 1896. This put the battery to power all the phones coming out of one exchange in the exchange...one common power source as opposed to each telephone being powered on site. You didn't even need to have electricity at your home or place of business to have a working phone. Fantastic!

Now with FIOS, Magic Jack, Voice Manager lines, all voip by the way, we are back to needing a power source for the service itself and our own on site battery. No power no phone.

I like my analog wall phone connected to a plain ole copper pair. Irene killed all my power for days. My cordless phones went down, my internet and if I were using any sip or voip service, that would go down as well. Just something to think about.
If you step back a few steps and look at the big picture, what was the disadvantage of copper vs FiOS and all the other flavors of alternate providers? It was because these other technologies allowed companies who were not in the dial tone business to provide it or (in the case of FiOS) provide it without the taxes and tariffs traditional copper is subject to. So this is not any kind of technological advance, copper has many advantages in that area. It's purely dollars and cents in the pockets of those alternate providers.

-Hal

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