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Ärende: FidoNews 25:37 [02/05]: Comments On Previous Articles
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                  COMMENTS ON PREVIOUS ARTICLES
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       Is there a future for pots?  Another viewpoint
       By Richard Webb, 1:116/901

I read the article in 2536 with some interest, as I'm one of those
with pots connectivity only.  Although many are sold on voice over
internet protocols I'm not convinced, and hope that our
telecommunications companies here in North America avoid the switch
for a variety of reasons.  I'll list them in order of most important
to the public down to my personal reasons.

First and foremost, VoIp requires more infrastructure to get the audio
from point a to point b.  In most advanced societies services such as
9-1-1 for emergency response dispatch are readily available, and we've
grown to depend on them.  With the simple pots technology we've become
used to handling it can remain reliable even after weather events such
as storms do major damage.  The reason is that most of the landline
cabling is buried underground in many parts of the U.s.  Combine this
with reliable battery backup for switching facilities and you've got a
robust system that will still continue to handle calls even after the
trees have blown down and the power grid is knocked out.  I'm such a
firm believer in maintaining simple pots capability that I've
convinced many elderly family members not to give up their pots lines
for cell phones only.  while arguing the point with them I tell them
not to abandon their plain old telephone handset with keypad or dial
in favor of the wireless systems and others that also require power
from the grid.  It just may save a life.

VoIp on the other hand requires more infrastructure to remain working.
You've got to convert that audio to data packets, and route them.  THe
more complex you make a system the more vulnerable it is to failure
either due to tampering or just accident.  Many times when operating
an emergency radio communications facility I've hooked up a small
battery to a field telephone like armies use and strung some wire to
the folks I'm providing communications for.  This way, they can
communicate directly with me without having to send a courier from one
place to another.  I can also phone patch them directly onto the radio
if the need should arise.  it's simple, a low voltage power source,
some wire and two simple handsets. The regular landline telephone you
find in your home isn't much more complicated than that.  Other than
the dual tone generator which is driven by the same power source as
the rest of the system it's just a simple audio connection.  The
twisted pair balanced line does fairly good at keeping interference
out and delivering audio to each end of the connection reliably.

This simple system is easier to troubleshoot, easier to restore to
service after the large scale outage.  String another line to patch
around the trouble spot, add more DC power; if all else fails go back
to electromechanical relays.  Easy to use; easy to fix; high degree of
reliability.  What's not to like?

Many claim not to hear a difference in audio quality for voice calls
routed via VoIp or via regular pots connections. Wish I could say
that.  I've used VoIp modes communicating over ham radio, and
communicated many times with people using such voIp phone services.
I'm appalled that we would consider the poor quality audio we get from
these digital cell phones and VoIp connections as acceptable.
Telephone audio has become poorer just in my fifty plus years on this
planet, and it should be getting better.  I seem to spend more time
with these newfangled digital packet switched audio connections saying
"what was that again?" than I should be.

Then again, there are plenty of folks in the developed world still on
dial-up internet connections.  There are still many places here in the
Americas where you're too far away from a switch to get dsl reliably.
In many of them there is not cable TV service.

In short, those of us with a few clues should be telling the telecomm
service providers that we expect reliability and better sound.  The
first time your packet switched cool VoIp system causes Grandma not to
get emergency services Mr. Telecomm CEO I hope they drag you through
the courts for the rest of your natural life.

Just $0.02 worth from out here in the trenches.


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