Now if they just hadn't given my phone # to the NSA...

[jeriendhal]

So yesterday I had Verizon come over and hook up my house for their fiberoptic Internet and cable TV service. Along the way they also reset my phones to go through the fiber optic system as well.

I judge it a good decision. Essentially my house has gained a little more Internet speed than Comcast offered, and about triple the number of TV channels I had before (BBC America, yah!!), along with a nice onscreen menu system, for a net reduction of $25 in my monthly cable/net bill. The cable picture is nice and clear, and the Net is as fast as it ever was. Possibly a bit faster, since I think I'm the only person in the neighborhood with the service just now.

Downside: There's occasionally a bit of artifacting on the TV screen the first second you switch channels, but it clears up almost immediately. More seriously, since the house's land line goes through the fiber optic network, it requires a battery (installed when they put the new cables in) to keep it going during a power outtage, good for only four hours of talk time. Fortuantely I doubt it'll take four hours to determine "Shit, the power is taking forever to come back, let's find a hotel room." Anything longer than that probably means the Apocalypse has come and I shouldn't count on the phones workign anyway.

Comments

[xinef.livejournal.com]

Our power was out for nearly 24 hours in the "Great Power Outage" of 2003 (2004?). Our phones worked the entire time.

Actually, it was really interesting. I was talking on the phone to someone in NJ at the time the outage happened. The line just suddenly went dead. I mentioned to my husband, who works in the office with me, that my call had just been dropped, weird. At that moment, our power went out. When our power was still out a minute or two later, I called the fellow in NJ back. He said that their power had gone out when the phone call stopped. Someone dropped into his office then, to say that he'd gotten a call from someone in CT that their power was out too. So I knew within less than 5 min that the power outage was over a very large area. Long before our local radio stations figured it out. (Thank heavens for battery powered radios.)

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

(smug g) I love my Qwest. (/smug g).

The only major phone company in America that refused the Bush administration. Said it was a violation of privacy, of all things.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

And they didn't like it when the CIA refused to get a warrant from FISA. Nice to know someone in Coporate America has an actual backbone.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

That they even know what a backbone *is*. Yeah.