RoadRunner with Phone

[Leo J Mauler]

On Fri, 28 May 2004 17:47:39 -0700 (PDT) Robert Kennedy
<erwin_k_r at yahoo.com> writes:
> Hi All,
> 
> I know we've skirted around this issue lately with the
> RR vs DSL discussion and another thread or two. I've
> just tried several searches of the archives with
> either no matches, or a match from 1993.
> 
> Today some flinking telemarketer got thru to my wife
> and pitched Time Warner's phone service as an addition
> to our RoadRunner. Now she's all excited about saving
> a few $$$ thinking that phone service is phone
> service.
> 
> Off list, or on, can I please have some pros and/or
> cons about switching from ol' basic Southwestern Bell
> land line service.

My cable service went out for two hours a few days ago.

If I was on TimeWarner "cable phone" service, I would not have been able
to call in and report the problem from home.  Instead, I would have had
to go out and find one of the dwindling number of pay phones in Kansas
City.

The same is pretty much true of wireless versus landline service.  When
your wireless service goes out for whatever reason, usually your landline
service is still functional.  

During that massive ice storm a few years back, my power went out for
awhile, the cable went out for a week, and the wireless towers for my
wireless service were out for a few days, but the landline phone service
was still quite active.

If nothing else, retain a single landline phone line into your home,
stripped of all extra features and suchlike.  You can even reduce your
bill another $1.50 a month by turning off "touch tone" service and
dialing out using pulses (this is true, my non-technical parents did
this), flipping the "touchtone/pulse" switch to use touchtone services
once you're pulse-dialed out.  When your cable phone goes out and the
local wireless tower falls over, you'll still be able to "reach out and
annoy someone" until your services get fixed.

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