Strange Telephone Behavior

[oilpsi2high]

Last night at around 2:30 AM, my landline phone rang. It rang once, then stopped. It did this about seven times, and then my house lost power. When I woke up around 8 AM, the power was back on.

What could have caused this? A power surge? I have DSL if that makes any difference. Actually, the internet wasn't functional when I left this morning.

 

[Ethan1]

 

[grisby]

Its called a "ring trip" you could of had a short across the line which made the phone ring once and since you did have a small power outage I am assuming that maybe it got zapped quickly which caused you phone to ring. Nothing major, happens all the time. If it continues have the telco do a line test for you. No charge as the trouble will most likely (if they can find the issue) will be outside. But most likely it will be ok now.

 

[E150GT]

who has a land line these days? Thats the strange part.

 

[oilpsi2high]

Originally Posted By: E150GT
who has a land line these days? Thats the strange part.


I don't have cell service at my house and like having the landline for emergencies.

 

[NJ_Car_Owner]

You should always keep a corded landlines around for power outages and emergencies. People do loose cell service and power can go out, power can go out that kills cell service if the generator doesn't kick in. I guess being a certain age makes me think that way.

 

[Virtus_Probi]

Originally Posted By: E150GT
who has a land line these days? Thats the strange part.


We have fiber to the home for internet and the landline basically just comes with it.
The bad part is we need battery power to the fiber interface for the landline to work during a power outage...

 

[SZR48207]

Originally Posted By: E150GT
who has a land line these days? Thats the strange part.


I used to think that, but cellular call quality is so bad that I would pay for analog land line again if I could (without having to buy it from AT&T).

 

[grisby]

I have DSL where I live. Can't get Fios even though worked for Bell for 34 yrs. Had to really rant and rave to get DSL in my neighborhood because I needed it for work and I also was in good with the engineers. Too far out to get Fios and they won't spend money.

Cell service sucks to the point if I don't leave my cell in the 1 end of the house all it does is search for service and kills the cell phones batteries!!

Yep, good to have a landline during emergencies, if they lose a cell tower, which has happened in the past or lose electic, I still have phone because the CO's have back up batteries. Of course this is with phones with traditional ringers in them, not the electronics'

Nothing like progress in the new millenium!!

 

[RichardS]

Land lines were pretty standard in CA. I had one in L.A., P.S., L.B., and S.F. Never know when an earthquake might take out a cell tower. Or get jammed by 800k people trying to call all at once.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: Reddy45
I used to think that, but cellular call quality is so bad that I would pay for analog land line again if I could (without having to buy it from AT&T).

Yes, I don't have a cell phone. Everyone that does is always complaining about sound quality, and they sound, when they're talking to me, like they're on Skype or something similarly barely functional.

 

[L_Sludger]

 

[SZR48207]

Originally Posted By: Garak
Originally Posted By: Reddy45
I used to think that, but cellular call quality is so bad that I would pay for analog land line again if I could (without having to buy it from AT&T).

Yes, I don't have a cell phone. Everyone that does is always complaining about sound quality, and they sound, when they're talking to me, like they're on Skype or something similarly barely functional.


It has become a big problem where I work because we'll regularly get on VoIP conference calls with over 100 people at a time and you're lucky if you can hear someone finish a sentence without it going into robo-sound mode or cutting out.

Of course when I point out how bad it is, everyone just shrugs it off.. so maybe nobody listens to these calls anyway...

 

[Boczech]

Originally Posted By: E150GT
who has a land line these days? Thats the strange part.


I still believe in having a analog line and comes in handy when joining conference calls. My wife still gets requests to have paperwork faxed instead of scanned so works well for her also.

OP: I had something like that happen approx three years ago during the winter time when we had a storm hit us pretty bad.

 

[Rolla07]

Originally Posted By: Garak
Originally Posted By: Reddy45
I used to think that, but cellular call quality is so bad that I would pay for analog land line again if I could (without having to buy it from AT&T).

Yes, I don't have a cell phone. Everyone that does is always complaining about sound quality, and they sound, when they're talking to me, like they're on Skype or something similarly barely functional.


I have never had any sound quality issues on my cell...

 

[Nickdfresh]

Originally Posted By: E150GT
who has a land line these days? Thats the strange part.


I do, it's packaged with cable and actually cheaper when added than just getting the internet and TV bundle...

 

[Nickdfresh]

It's also so bad I might just cut everything completely and go to the higher cable connection and do bad things via hacking bad things...

 

[SZR48207]

Originally Posted By: Rolla07
Originally Posted By: Garak
Originally Posted By: Reddy45
I used to think that, but cellular call quality is so bad that I would pay for analog land line again if I could (without having to buy it from AT&T).

Yes, I don't have a cell phone. Everyone that does is always complaining about sound quality, and they sound, when they're talking to me, like they're on Skype or something similarly barely functional.


I have never had any sound quality issues on my cell...


So you never have the conversation drop for a second, or it goes into robo voice mode briefly where the audio sounds digitized?

Or even simpler - the volume is never too low?

To put it another way - How much time do you spend on every call now saying "hello? can you hear me" or "can you repeat what you said?". I really don't recall that being a problem on old school analog lines.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/wireless/why-mobile-voice-quality-still-stinksand-how-to-fix-it

 

[user52165]

Originally Posted By: Nickdfresh
Originally Posted By: E150GT
who has a land line these days? Thats the strange part.


I do, it's packaged with cable and actually cheaper when added than just getting the internet and TV bundle...


+1 This.

And all the other reasons mentioned. Keep both land and cell.

 

[Tomioka]

A real land line would be using POTS 48v system and not a VOIP or cable/telephone modem system. I still use a home phone but through the cable company. However if there is a power outage in my neighborhood it knocks out the "cable network neighborhood distribution system" or CTMS or whatever it called I have no home phone/internet/cable. I have to use my cell to report the power outage and I've been yet to contact the local cable company about this.