Re: VoIP vs POTS (was Re: Operation Ghost Click)

[Mike Hale <eyeronic.design () gmail com>]

Absolutely.  Again, it depends on what service you use, what
contention the provider gives you, and so forth.  If you go with a
quality provider and a good service plan, you will not get bumped off
in favor of someone else.  Of course, you're paying much more for
service like that, but you really do get what you pay for, especially
when it comes to satellite.

On Thu, May 3, 2012 at 11:35 AM, Brandt, Ralph <ralph.brandt () pateam com> wrote:
> Satcoms are the panacea for every problem until you try them.  They too have limited numbers of channels, far lower 
> than cell.
>
> Check the fiasco in Haiti when sat phones were handed out and it took hours to make calls.
>
> Sometimes two tin cans and a string are better....
>
> Ralph Brandt
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mike Hale [mailto:eyeronic.design () gmail com]
> Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2012 12:32 PM
> To: Brandt, Ralph
> Cc: NANOG list
> Subject: Re: VoIP vs POTS (was Re: Operation Ghost Click)
>
> That's precisely where SatCom enters the picture.  Cell companies
> aren't ever going to undersell their bandwidth...that simply isn't
> profitable.  SatCom is one of the best ways to plan for communications
> outages during times of crisis, especially if you choose a provider
> that's outside of your area.  Unfortunately, you're going to end up
> spending at least one more order of magnitude on *decent* satellite
> service than you would spend on cell (unless you only go with a
> satphone).
>
> On Thu, May 3, 2012 at 7:59 AM, Brandt, Ralph <ralph.brandt () pateam com> wrote:
> > *SNIP*
> >
> > During a Peach Bottom (nuclear power plant - one of our two in the area
> > - the other is Three Mile Island) several of the EOC's lost phone, FAX
> > and radio connectivity (repeater failures) to County EOC because of
> > thunderstorms and tornados that blew in during the drill.  The ham radio
> > operators at these EOC's and County provided communications to the sites
> > for both the drill and live events. They happened to be on site for the
> > drill. The site I was at was vacated except the hams, the government
> > evaluators and the public works guy because of a fire, all of the other
> > players in the EOC including the EMC were firemen!  A lack of volunteers
> > means people wear multiple hats.
> >
> > But let's get to the big item.  When the bad day comes, cellular is
> > worthless.  I was at work the day of the earthquake in Virginia, a
> > couple hundred miles south of us.  The ground shook and some masonry
> > buildings in the area sustained cracks that needed to be repaired.  Ten
> > minutes after the quake cellular was either useless or had up to fifteen
> > minute waits to place a call.  Everyone was on discussing the quake.
> > And cellular company pronouncements aside, it isn't going to get better,
> > even if they get more bandwidth that will be eaten up in 2-4 years. The
> > total migration to cellular, the unlimited use, the tendency for people
> > to yack when a bad day comes all makes for a disaster.  We need
> > solutions, not cell company hype, not government catering to special
> > interests, but real solutions that fix problems without introducing
> > more.
> >
> > One of the first things cellular companies can do is stop overselling
> > cellular.  The second is end or raise the price significantly on
> > unlimited plans, both voice and data.  Go to what the landlines called,
> > USS, that is you pay for every minute....  Even if that charge is small,
> > it will drive usage down.
> >
> > Otherwise on a bad day people will die waiting for the yackers to get
> > off the call phone so they can call 911.  Hopefully it will not be on
> > VOIP and the internet is down.
> >
> >
> > Ralph Brandt
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Jared Mauch [mailto:jared () puck nether net]
> > Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2012 4:15 PM
> > To: Eric Wieling
> > Cc: NANOG list
> > Subject: VoIP vs POTS (was Re: Operation Ghost Click)
> >
> >
> > On May 2, 2012, at 3:52 PM, Eric Wieling wrote:
> >
> > > I doubt the g729 or GSM codecs used by VoIP and Cell phones can
> > compare to a POTS line.
> >
> >
> > This is why many people use g711ulaw or other codec.
> >
> > Personally I would not work with anyone that doesn't do g711ulaw
> > (88.2kbit when IP packet overhead added in).
> >
> > There are other codecs such as G.722.1 & G.722.2 but the support isn't
> > as broad as g711ulaw/alaw.
> >
> > Regarding landline service, this can fail for many of the common reasons
> > it does are the same reasons that IP service may fail.  The failure
> > modes can depend on a variety of circumstances from the physical layer
> > (e.g.: audible static on the line) that cause your ear to retrain, which
> > may cause a DSL device to comparably retrain.  The same is true for
> > shared medium such as CATV but this has other problems as well, if not
> > well isolated, somebody can short out the segment or send garbage at the
> > wrong channel, etc.
> >
> > Personally, I'm thinking of ditching my ISDN (gives clear dial tone at a
> > long-distance from the CO) for something like the Verizon Home Connect
> > box.  Gives a few hours of built-in battery backup, but would fail once
> > the tower loses power (usually 8-12 hours).
> >
> > I also am concerned about 911 service.  When dialing 911 recently from
> > my mobile, I should have dialed it from my home phone as I was routed a
> > few times to get to the right fire dispatch team.
> >
> > Oh well.
> >
> > - Jared
>
>
>
> --
> 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0



-- 
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0