[ale] OT - Non AT&T landline

Tue Jun 26 10:04:22 EDT 2007

My reason for wanting landline is purely for emergency situations.  It
seems to me that in emergencies cell systems get overloaded and you
might not have power to run your computer/broadband equipment (or
recharge your cell phone).   Although I've seen loss of landline phone
service on very rare occasions in my life I've never seen it happen when
all the other utilities were out which I've also experienced.

So again my question isn't about the advisability of using landline but
rather if anyone is using a provider other than Bellsouth/AT&T on the
landline in a Bellsouth/AT&T area.

P.S.  Just to forestall it - I am aware that the calls would still go
over Bellsouth/AT&T lines.   My question is generated both by a desire
to save money and a desire to reduce AT&T's income by however little I
can.   I didn't like AT&T back when it was a monopoly and their response
to the NSA information collection stuff let me know that despite being a
reconstituted corporation their "we're the phone company" hubris has NOT
changed.

________________________________

From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of Tim
To: ale at ale.org
Youngblood
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2007 6:58 PM
To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [ale] OT - Non AT&T landline

I haven't had a home phone line for 2 years. I have 'naked' DSL coming
into my residence and I use Vonage and another VOIP solution for a
business line.

I use Speakeasy DSL and they have excellent customer service and very
rare outages. It is more expensive due to their customer service but it
is for business, so it is worth it to have 99.9% uptime and a real live
person who gives a damn when you call their support number.

A couple of years ago what the first time that POTS line installation
actually went down in the US since Mr. AG Bell invented it. There is a
reason. 

On 6/25/07, Jeff Lightner <jlightner at water.com> wrote:

OK that's nice to hear but I don't see how it addresses the question I
asked.  I'm not looking for DSL - just local phone service.

However, since you bring it up - ILEC companies such as Verizon,
Bellsouth, SBC (BS/SBC = AT&T now) were very often accused of a severe
lack of cooperation if not outright sabotage by most CLECs back when I
worked in the Telecom industry.   Even the FCC complained bitterly about
their non-compliance with the intent and letter of the
Telecommunications Act - up until you know who appointed cronies after
the 2000 election.   Many CLECs gave up on the idea because it wasn't
worth fighting the battle except for business lines.  These huge ILECs
were supposed to open up local markets to competition to be allowed to
sell long distance but never really did in a meaningful way.

________________________________

From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto: ale-bounces at ale.org
To: ale at ale.org
<mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org> ] On Behalf Of Jim Philips
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2007 12:40 PM
To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [ale] OT - Non AT&T landline

I signed up with Eartlink's DSL/phone bundle back in February. Major
mistake. First, it became nearly impossible to make international calls.
Parties on the other end couldn't hear us. After a few hopeless attempts
to resolve that issue, we just signed up for international service with
a provider who could service our cell phone lines. Second, the phone
service would just drop out periodically. When this happened, I was
forced to call their nightmare technical support on my cell phone. They
were always majorly resistant to bringing in a real tech to troubleshoot
the issue. Third, my download speed for DSL was about half what I was
used to. Nobody could ever explain that completely. One guy said that my
earlier connection had probably been through a remote and that BellSouth
had forced them connect all the way back to the switch when I cut over.
Maybe. Fourth, I had billing problems one month and it took about 90
minutes of explaining and threatening to get them to correct it. At this
point, Earthlink has got to be one of the most poorly run companies in
the ISP business. Makes me sad when I remember what Mindspring used to
be. I ended up ditching them before my contract was done. 

On 6/25/07, Jeff Lightner <jlightner at water.com> wrote:

All the talk about broadband/DSL for AT&T/Bellsouth made me wonder if
anyone on the list is using someone else i s using one of the 3rd party
regular telephone providers and if so whether they would recommend
others to use them.  

I' m not talking about Broadband telephone but rather the regular phone
lines (POTS?).   Also not talking about providers like Windstream that
own lines outside of Bellsouth areas - I 'm in a Bellsouth area so
wouldn 't be able to get them unless they also provided the kind of
service I 'm talking about.   Basically I' m looking for a CLEC if you
know what that is.

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