Categories
Uncategorized

Good For the Winter

Got my Rogers home phone line yesterday.

A little history/techincal lesson for you all here.

Phone lines by Bell are powered, hence, you get phone service even during a blackout.

Rogers doesn’t use the Bell phone line (they are not allowed) so how do they get by this problem?

Follow my thought process here:
– They plug a wire into your TV cable outlet.
– Said cable enters this magic box (not really a magic box but for illustrative purposes I shall call it a magic box) which is also plugged into the electrical outlet (important point for later)
– Out of the magic box comes a phone cable which connects to the rest of your phone lines in your house
– Voila, you now have phone lines in your house!

Now, as you may have read, I did not bother getting a VOIP line (aka phone over the Internet, which is cheaper because…heck, on the Internet, there IS no long distance) because if the power went out, I would lose the line, and also 911 if I needed it.

Well, as soon as I see this magic box controlling my phone lines, I had the sudden realization that I have entered into the same problem.

If the power goes out, there will be no phone!

Here comes the brilliance which is this magic box.

It has a 36 hour battery in it in case the power goes out.

Awesome.

Now…tell me, oh geniuses over at VOIP land…why couldn’t you offer me something with a 36 hour battery on it?

I predict this happening in 2006 and I will be switching to it in 2006.

Until then…

iplaying: To Forgive (live) – The Smashing Pumpkins – Mellow, Jolly and and The Infinite Madness

19 replies on “Good For the Winter”

What happens if the power is out for 72 hours? How do you know the battery is charged? What if the battery isn’t holding it’s charge? What type of battery is it? NiCad, Lithium, Alkaline?

Just plug it into the MAND or the MNAND gate, it will be powered, and provide phone service for the WHOLE block.

Duuude…the MAND2! I forgot about that.

If the power is out for 72 hours, then you won’t have access to your phone.

Slim chances of that. EVEN during the ever dreaded ice storm.

haha, I rememeber talking about this in the lunchroom at algonquin, “You know some time in the future we are all going to be telling electronic jokes that make no sense to everyone, fyi, And then I tied ENP and ENT to GROUND!!!”

Well, if that is true, come on over and show me how my phone line works without the magic box plugged into the wall. And without the battery.

yes the anolog lines are powered, but if you have a digital system and the power goes out so does your phone! if you don’t subscribe to bell you don’t have service.

you’re missing the point. No Power, no phone. Oh, Bell only has to keep back up power for 48 hours anyway!

Really?

I never knew that about Bell.

Anyhow, once again, let me put this in English for the ENT/ENPers out there.

Rogers has no phone lines coming into the house.

So they use their own cable lines, which goes into a magic box and voila! Transforms the cable signal into a phone signal.

I guess it must be different in Orleans.

I can get a rogers analog phone line into my house (because of the sprint canada acquisition)

humm, the signal is obviously digital and Rogers must jump to its analog system or to a bell CO along the way. That way you can reach other people who use Bell. I don’t know exatly how they would keep the service going in a power outtage, but under the CRTC they are required by law to have phone service in a power outage. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/

I would call Rogers and ask, second I would get an analog phone connected to the box that way if you have a power outage you can still use your phone, Third keep the cell phone it will work, plus you can charge it in your car!

Uhm.

Did you not read the post pollcrazy? I was talking about how I already got the Rogers phone! 😉 hence, how they give me a 36 hour battery.

Anyhow, onto matt’s comment about how Rogers offers an analog phone line….yep, it’s true. But it comes from their cables lines, into the magic box and converts it to the analog phone line. no joke.

No no, rogers offers an analog phone line that comes in the same way your bell phone did.
I guess just not in orleans.

I did read the blog, what I meant was to call Rogers to see if you hook up an analog phone to the box if it will still work in a power outage.

FYI – the Rogers phone system uses the TCP/IP protocol that it uses with it’s internet and digital cable – and effectively is Voice over IP!

In regards to the 911 problem, I’m not 100% sure how they got around it (maybe tracking through your cable?). But Rogers just doesn’t want you knowing it’s VOIP so they can charge you more =p.

Comments are closed.