Is digital better than POTS?
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I’m changing my internet from cable to fiber. I can get a digital phone line for $20/mo which is less than my POTS. I like POTS because it works when there’s no electricity. I used to fax from home but no longer. I’m old and change is hard. Please tell me why I should switch.
I can keep my same phone #, can I keep my same landline equipment?
To keep my landline with fiber internet requires tech support and customer service intervention since most people change to digital phone when they change to fiber internet. Made me think I was doing something unusual.
I don’t have a cell phone.
Thanks.
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@my4mainecoons said in Is digital better than POTS?:
I don’t have a cell phone.
You are a 2 percenter!
Only 2 percent of U.S. adults use only landlines
Sorry, nothing of value to add as I haven’t had a landline is about 15 years.
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Several years ago I bought an Obihai brand VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) adapters and obtained a free Google Voice number. I was able, after configuring the device, to simply plug in any POTS phone and be done with it. Unfortunately HP/Poly, which now owns the intellectual property of the former company Obihai, discontinued production, sale and support of all VoIP devices that work(ed) with Google Voice. My understanding is there are no currently-produced VoIP products from any manufacturer that work with consumer Google Voice, and there are no plans to add any.
To answer your specific question is you might need to talk to your ISP and ask. Perhaps you can, depending on the equipment they use, plug your existing phones into it and be on your merry way.
Of course, depending on your “phone company” you may currently be using fiber and/or digital signals once it leaves your house anyway.
OK, I didn’t answer your specific question so should probably stop rambling.
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@mtnagel I knew I was “special” 😁 but I use email more than a phone so not quite that demographic.
I had a flip phone for many years. Then I changed jobs and over 50% of my hour long commute had spotty if any cell service. I went off the road once and there was no service. A snowplow driver radioed for a tow truck.BUT, should I keep my POTS or switch to a digital line?
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@my4mainecoons said in Is digital better than POTS?:
@mtnagel I knew I was “special” 😁 but I use email more than a phone so not quite that demographic.
I had a flip phone for many years. Then I changed jobs and over 50% of my hour long commute had spotty if any cell service. I went off the road once and there was no service. A snowplow driver radioed for a tow truck.BUT, should I keep my POTS or switch to a digital line?
@my4mainecoons Pro and cons to switching. Biggest concern for me is if my internet connection goes out, I have no phone. If you really don’t have a cell phone, then you would be putting all of your voice communication on your internet line. Same thing with your alarm system if you have one, unless the alarm system is on a cellular connection.
Cheaper to be on internet phone and what tech support will do is install an adapter to convert the internet phone signal so that your “legacy” phone equipment can use the internet phone signal. Disclaimer - I used to be a network engineer and did my share of conversion of legacy/digital to IP/internet phone systems.
What I do is I use a product called Ooma. It lets me use my internet connection to make phone calls and I believe you can move your existing phone number to Ooma, but best to check with them. Service costs about $5 per month without any of their “premium” features which I don’t need, so compare the features and cost to what your fiber provider is offering. You would have to buy the Ooma equipment, but it’s relatively inexpensive and I made my money back in about four months and have been ahead ever since. Ooma makes a base that connects to your router with an ethernet cable, and another model that connects wirelessly. I do have a cell phone, but you could buy a prepaid phone with 100 minutes relatively inexpensively and use that when your internet phone is not working, especially if you have an emergency and your internet phone is not available.
Ooma is less expensive on Amazon than it is on the Ooma website. I bought on Amazon.
– Z –
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@zerenia I second OOMA.
2If you purchase something through a post on our site, PhatWallet may get a small share of the sale.
1 Reply
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So if I lose electricity then I lose internet and phone service? I’ve heard of battery back up for fiber. How long does that battery last?
I’ve always felt safer having a landline during power outages. I have ~4 outages a year.
I had DSL and cable with cable being the default. Often I’d find that I was using DSL because the cable had gone down long enough for the DSL to kick in. This was with electricity. Does fiber randomly go down too?
I’ve bought Trac Fones with a year of service and failed to activate the service in time 🙁. I use one for iBotta with WiFi. The battery drains between uses so even if it had phone service it wouldn’t be a good back up plan.
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I held on to my POTS phone line for a long time, mainly because I didn’t like the idea of having no phone during a power outage. I’ve had rare occasions when the power was out for days at a time, so cellphones would also go out in that situation. They charged me an arm and a leg to keep that going, and when I moved, I finally gave in since I was able to get much better internet service and the phone for a pretty small add-on fee. I don’t love that it will go out when there’s no power, but I put it on a UPS battery backup (along with my internet, so that shouldn’t go out immediately either). I really don’t know how long that will last in an outage, although I supposed there are ways to figure that out.
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@hbg1 Anxiety is expensive 😕.
I’ve considered a Powerwall.
I have a 750VA ups with a dead battery. A new battery or even UPS is cheaper than keeping POTS.
I wish that I could have both until I was less anxious about the digital.
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Another backup is your car. A few electric cars can supply current to your house or built-in inverters to give 120V for plugging in, but most of us don’t have those. What most of us can do is to buy a separate inverter to supply 120V to recharge the UPS or other backup battery, and/or use the 12V outlet (formerly called the cigarette lighter), to charge our cell phones with an adapter or run/charge other devices with a USB adapter. If needed for a prolonged time, you may need to run the engine to charge the car battery.
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@my4mainecoons said in Is digital better than POTS?:
So if I lose electricity then I lose internet and phone service? I’ve heard of battery back up for fiber. How long does that battery last?
I’ve always felt safer having a landline during power outages. I have ~4 outages a year.
I had DSL and cable with cable being the default. Often I’d find that I was using DSL because the cable had gone down long enough for the DSL to kick in. This was with electricity. Does fiber randomly go down too?
I’ve bought Trac Fones with a year of service and failed to activate the service in time 🙁. I use one for iBotta with WiFi. The battery drains between uses so even if it had phone service it wouldn’t be a good back up plan.
@my4mainecoons Battery backup runtime depends on the size of the battery. Not the wattage or the Va hours, but the battery itself in relation to the wattage consumed. Getting the size of the UPS right is a whole separate but related discussion. I have a battery on my router and the Ooma, but if my ISP goes out, the battery doesn’t help. The cell phone is the only reason I even considered Internet phone.
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BTW, if you know how long you want to keep your equipment running, here’s how to size a UPS
https://unifiedpowerusa.com/ups-load-and-runtime-calculator/
APC used to have a decent interactive calculator but I can’t find it on their website.
– Z. –
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try this pot
