rotary dial phone

[cberhomengarden]

We have fiber optic, and our old rotary dial phone works just fine with it. Here's how our system works: the box on the outside of the house is Optical Network Terminal - this converts the signal to work with the house's copper wire. Since there is no longer a copper wire connection from the phone company (which previously carried power), the home's internal phone wiring needs to be powered from the home's regular AC power. There is a converter box in the basement that provides this charge to the ONT, but it is, of course, subject to household power outages. To protect against this, the converter box contains a rechargeable backup battery, which will power the home's phone system for eight hours of talk-time (supposedly - I have never had to test the battery life yet).

Chris
http://www.saracenihouse.com

We have Verizon Fios phone service, which I believe is fiber optic, right?
In any case, the backup battery only lasts for 8-12 hours whether you use the phone or not.
We got to test it out last year after the hurricane when a transformer was taken down by a tree a few blocks away.
Our power lines are actually underground, but that transformer above ground apparently serves our lines.
After about 8-12 hrs (I can't remember exactly) the battery died and we had no home phone service. Instead we charged our cell phones in our car.

[cs]

We have Verizon Fios phone service, which I believe is fiber optic, right?
In any case, the backup battery only lasts for 8-12 hours whether you use the phone or not.
We got to test it out last year after the hurricane when a transformer was taken down by a tree a few blocks away.
Our power lines are actually underground, but that transformer above ground apparently serves our lines.
After about 8-12 hrs (I can't remember exactly) the battery died and we had no home phone service. Instead we charged our cell phones in our car.

Yep, Fios here as well. That's good to know about the battery backup! I could swear that the literature said 8 hour talk-time. I wonder if it would last longer, if one disconnected everything in the house but ONE phone (so all other extensions, answering machines, printer/faxes etc were off).

Hmmm.

We rarely loose power here, so I have not had a chance to test the battery, but maybe I'll try unplugging everything next time that happens, and see if it makes a difference. I could try to unplug the last phone on the system as well, and just replug it when I need to make calls.

Chris
http://www.saracenihouse.com

[Don M]

It would seem to indicate that there is a power draw even if the phone is not being used so maybe disconnecting phone might help. Does FIOS have its own modem etc attached that also might draw power? our Comcast cable system is powered by a unit mounted on a phone pole across the road. When we had the big Oct '11 snowstorm Comcast brought out a generator & connected it to the unit on the poll so we continued to have phone service even though we had no TV or Computers available to use the cable or internet service!

[cs]

Does FIOS have its own modem etc attached that also might draw power?

It does... but supposedly is not supported by the backup battery, which is just (as i understand it) for the phone.

Chris
http://www.saracenihouse.com

[barrett]

Is it weird that I REALLY do not want all this extra batteries, etc installed in my old house? Seems like they will have to do a good amount of wiring, etc. I guess I'll have to stay home and babysit the out of state contractors so they don't screw anything up.

Between this and the new 'smart meter' crap, I'm getting sick of companies forcing 'better' technology on me when the old way works just fine. And yes, I am opting out of the new meters.

[cs]

Well, I don't think it's weird... it's your house.

For me though... I already had a cable box on our exterior, and the ONT is actually slightly smaller, so that - for me - was at worst, a wash. The power box in the basement is... well... in the basement. I have lot's of other non-period technology down there: furnace, water heater, washer/drier etc, so visually it does not bother me. And I LOVE the blazingly fast internet that fiber optic can provide. My wife and I work out of our home office for clients based all over the world. She does editorial work for scientific/ archaeological publications, and I produce corporate video , so we need to upload and download very large files quickly on a regular basis. The internet - and speedy internet - is really the only way to make this work.

I've also been very happy with the smart meters. We no longer have utility folks needing access to the house to read the meter, and we no longer get "estimated" readings because we happened not to be home when they stopped by. The smart meters are no larger than the meters they replace, and visually are almost identical, even close up. I don't see any down side here - for me. I know some folks are concerned about EMF fields that these meter's generate, but... in this house, we use cel phones, cordless phones, microwave ovens, computers and computer monitors, TVs, and even the dog has a GPS tracker and base station that produce EMFs in greater intensity than these meters. Still, the jury is still out on the dangers of EMF radiation from electronics such as these, so I don't want to discount the concerns of people who don't want to use such devices. I don't worry about it. But if I did, then I would not want them in my place either.

Chris
http://www.saracenihouse.com

[YinzerMama]

We don't even have a home phone any more, so losing power and having phone service is moot. Ideally my cell phone will be charged, should we lose power... although we have a crank radio that can charge a phone, should it ever come to that. Of course by the time I go to dig it out, the power will be back on...

I had a rotary phone still until our last move, it had been my grandma's, and I loved it for the retro-ness ... it was like a 1981 beige desk set... but I ended up unplugging it because the ring from a rotary phone is so jarring... I think I am too high strung for such things.

I mean a 4am phone call is unsettling any way you slice it, but a rotary phone waking you up is just THAT MUCH more ... anxiety provoking.

[Texas_Ranger]

My parents always cover the phone with some pillows, jackets, blankets or anything else within arm's reach when someone is sleeping nearby. We always had loooong cords (longest regular ones are 10m here, that's 30'+ and we even had a homebrew 15m one once) on our phones so we could also take the phone(s) to the place less likely to disturb anyone.

I'm a bit of a vintage phone freak, so we have planty of older phones around. The main phone is an early 1980s design with push-buttons (used to be the standard phone until the mid-90s when we still had a monopoly phone company) and on top of that we usually have 2 or 3 rotary phones of varying age. My oldest working phone is from 1949, a solid chunk of black bakelite.