AT&T Fiber

[K8MHZ]

And true POTS still generally relies on POCO to keep batteries charged

Yes, but not at the customer's home. I used to install transfer switches at the sites where the Telco batteries were kept. They have large battery banks in MESA cabinets with chargers. They have about a 4 hour run time on battery power. If the POCO power goes out, a signal is sent back to the Telco center and if the run time starts to run out, a trailer with a charger is brought out and connected inlet of the transfer switch, then power is manually switched from POCO to generator.

We subbed for Verizon for a couple years back in the days of real telephone service.

 

[K8MHZ]

To end user equipment designed for POTS still functions the same way.

Until the customer is without power for a few days and the modem battery dies.

 

[hbiss]

Is not conventional POTS where the copper pair runs all the way to a central station. To end user equipment designed for POTS still functions the same way. I don't know what to call it, might be a name though.

And true POTS still generally relies on POCO to keep batteries charged

The modem or fiber ONT at the customer's premises provides the -48 battery voltage, ring voltage and supervision to emulate POTS. What's comes in on the fiber or coax from the street is IP, but don't ask me the protocol.

With fiber, of course everything is IP- phone, internet and TV but with cable the TV is still digital over analog with discrete frequencies for each channel. I don't know what the problem is with them transporting video as IP and dedicating the entire cable bandwidth to IP. We've had services like Netflix for a long time so it's nothing new. If that were to happen we could do away with the coax in the house and just connect everything to the internet with CAT6.

-Hal

 

[zbang]

The modem or fiber ONT at the customer's premises provides the -48 battery voltage, ring voltage and supervision to emulate POTS.

Yep, which is why we call it POTS, even if it isn't copper all the way from the CO- the CPE thinks it's POTS. (Note that some ONTs have fairly week power supplies and can't manage a full 48v or ring more that 2-3 phones with mechanical ringers.)

What's comes in on the fiber or coax from the street is IP, but don't ask me the protocol.

Really depends on the ONT and telco. When I last checked in C&P, err, Bell Titanic, err, Verizontal, land their FIOS "POTS" lines were not IP-based. Reading between the lines, most of the FIOS connectivity was ATM-based. The state also regulated FIOS-based POTS differently from cable-modem-based POTS, with the former more like full copper POTS. (I have the cites somewhere in old email but aren't going to dig that out now.)

A lot depends on the age of the plant; newer systems are more likely to be IP based at the upper levels, but it's not always clear what's on the wire.

 

[grich]

The modem or fiber ONT at the customer's premises provides the -48 battery voltage, ring voltage and supervision to emulate POTS. What's comes in on the fiber or coax from the street is IP, but don't ask me the protocol.

With fiber, of course everything is IP- phone, internet and TV but with cable the TV is still digital over analog with discrete frequencies for each channel. I don't know what the problem is with them transporting video as IP and dedicating the entire cable bandwidth to IP. We've had services like Netflix for a long time so it's nothing new. If that were to happen we could do away with the coax in the house and just connect everything to the internet with CAT6.

-Hal

That's exactly what our cable provider (small co-op telco) did over a year ago. They converted subs to fiber delivery several years ago, and when it was time to redo the aging CATV head-end gear, they decided no, and switched the CATV RF delivery to IP...each sub was given a small Ethernet switch and up to three Amino decoders. Works well, and easy for me to implement because I had CAT5e already in position. We got tired of subsidizing ESPN, though, so we're now on a small Sling TV package and a Yagi in the attic for the over-the-air stations, and saving $100 a month.

 

[gar]

Updata

Updata

190216-1463 EST

After I placed my order with AT&T they indicated installation would be on last Wednesday. Within hours they changed installation to today. Note, when I placed the order I ask the AT&T person many times whether fiber was actually brought to my home. The answer every time was yes.

I was informed yesterday that the installer would arrive between 9 and 10 AM Saturday morning. He called about 8:15 and said he would be over in 20 minutes. Very good.

AT&T lied and therefore committed fraud. What the installer was told to install was a satellite dish, and copper for phone and internet. Clearly no fiber. But further he could not install satellite because of trees, and he could not provide 100 mega-bits-per-second Internet because of the distance to the data concentrator, about 0.7 mile.

Thus, no install. Canceled. Less than a mile away they are actually installing fiber.

My goal is to can Comcast. Their rates have gone too high. I have options, but none are real good. TV is not a problem, over the air is adequate. So I shall study short time options. AT&T may get their fiber here soon, not that I want to deal with them, but it is one way to force useful price competition. 5G may come along soon, but I really don't like RF as part of my path.

Just to get a sale lying is not a useful tool. Probably provides more negative results than positive. For example this post. And my letters that will go to the Public Service Commission, and Attorney General. The lying is quite obviously deliberate.

.

 

[kwired]

190216-1463 EST

After I placed my order with AT&T they indicated installation would be on last Wednesday. Within hours they changed installation to today. Note, when I placed the order I ask the AT&T person many times whether fiber was actually brought to my home. The answer every time was yes.

I was informed yesterday that the installer would arrive between 9 and 10 AM Saturday morning. He called about 8:15 and said he would be over in 20 minutes. Very good.

AT&T lied and therefore committed fraud. What the installer was told to install was a satellite dish, and copper for phone and internet. Clearly no fiber. But further he could not install satellite because of trees, and he could not provide 100 mega-bits-per-second Internet because of the distance to the data concentrator, about 0.7 mile.

Thus, no install. Canceled. Less than a mile away they are actually installing fiber.

My goal is to can Comcast. Their rates have gone too high. I have options, but none are real good. TV is not a problem, over the air is adequate. So I shall study short time options. AT&T may get their fiber here soon, not that I want to deal with them, but it is one way to force useful price competition. 5G may come along soon, but I really don't like RF as part of my path.

Just to get a sale lying is not a useful tool. Probably provides more negative results than positive. For example this post. And my letters that will go to the Public Service Commission, and Attorney General. The lying is quite obviously deliberate.

.

You can fault the company, but the individual sales person you talked to may have had no idea what was really going on.

 

[gar]

190217-1046 EST

kwired:

Yes I do fault the company. And I also have a great dislike of AT&T. Top management is at fault.

The AT&T person that interfaces with me by phone represents the company, and is trained by the company to perform that interface function. If you are running a promotion on a fiber connected service, then that interface person has to know what fiber is. Using the description of fiber to my wall by that interface person means they have been trained to some extent on the subject. I repeatedly ask if it was really fiber all the way to my home and the answer was yes. I also tried to verify that it was not copper part of the way. Got the answer it was fiber.

Probably the problem exists in their data base. Since fiber is being installed close by it probably means that it will appear on my poles sometime in the near future. But it is not there presently and to sell something that is not what you say it is is fraud.

It appears that the game that needs to be played is to switch around between different suppliers as their deals run out. I am generally satisfied with Comcast service, except TV audio is bad, but to increase price makes me unhappy.

If you have a customer that is reasonably satisfied with your service, then you should want to keep that customer, not drive them away.

.

 

[kwired]

190217-1046 EST

kwired:

Yes I do fault the company. And I also have a great dislike of AT&T. Top management is at fault.

The AT&T person that interfaces with me by phone represents the company, and is trained by the company to perform that interface function. If you are running a promotion on a fiber connected service, then that interface person has to know what fiber is. Using the description of fiber to my wall by that interface person means they have been trained to some extent on the subject. I repeatedly ask if it was really fiber all the way to my home and the answer was yes. I also tried to verify that it was not copper part of the way. Got the answer it was fiber.

Probably the problem exists in their data base. Since fiber is being installed close by it probably means that it will appear on my poles sometime in the near future. But it is not there presently and to sell something that is not what you say it is is fraud.

It appears that the game that needs to be played is to switch around between different suppliers as their deals run out. I am generally satisfied with Comcast service, except TV audio is bad, but to increase price makes me unhappy.

If you have a customer that is reasonably satisfied with your service, then you should want to keep that customer, not drive them away.

.

I hear you, that customer service person may know their technology stuff, but at same time still only know what the database tells them for your location. This isn't an excuse for AT&T though, just the customer service person. Had same thing with my son and Frontier. I think I mentioned early in this thread, they sold him a package they could not provide with equipment in the area. They should have at least dispatched someone to investigate first, and in this case the local guy would have been able to say without leaving his office - we have no fiber to the home anywhere in this particular community, that package is not available to that customer.

 

[ggunn]

190217-1046 EST

kwired:

Yes I do fault the company. And I also have a great dislike of AT&T. Top management is at fault.

The AT&T person that interfaces with me by phone represents the company, and is trained by the company to perform that interface function. If you are running a promotion on a fiber connected service, then that interface person has to know what fiber is. Using the description of fiber to my wall by that interface person means they have been trained to some extent on the subject. I repeatedly ask if it was really fiber all the way to my home and the answer was yes. I also tried to verify that it was not copper part of the way. Got the answer it was fiber.

Probably the problem exists in their data base. Since fiber is being installed close by it probably means that it will appear on my poles sometime in the near future. But it is not there presently and to sell something that is not what you say it is is fraud.

It appears that the game that needs to be played is to switch around between different suppliers as their deals run out. I am generally satisfied with Comcast service, except TV audio is bad, but to increase price makes me unhappy.

If you have a customer that is reasonably satisfied with your service, then you should want to keep that customer, not drive them away.

.

My shorter takeaway is this: When I deal with a company I see them as monolithic. It doesn't matter who in the company told me something, irrespective of how knowledgeable (or not) they are or trustworthy (or not) they are, they speak for the company and the company is responsible.

 

[hbiss]

I was thinking of the dish but I didn't remember what cable company owns Dish network. I guess now we know.

It could have been worse- here if Verizon can't give you service via fiber, and of course copper isn't an option anymore, they give you cell phones!

-Hal

 

[kwired]

I was thinking of the dish but I didn't remember what cable company owns Dish network. I guess now we know.

It could have been worse- here if Verizon can't give you service via fiber, and of course copper isn't an option anymore, they give you cell phones!

-Hal

AT&T owns Direct TV.

Dish Network used to have Echostar as it's parent company, but AFAIK they are completely separate now, though Echostar continues to be a primary technology partner with them.