Like the Comcast technician said, VoIP (Voice over IP) is potentially unreliable, particularly in Comcast's case, in my opinion. With Comcast, you are relying primarily on coaxial cable to transmit data, be it phone, internet or TV data. That coaxial cable bandwidth is shared with many of your neighbors...so when traffic is heavy, you might have to suffer through some erratic periods for phone service and decreased internet speeds. We recently had Verizon FIOS service installed at our house, so I can discuss that a bit here. Our service is internet and phone (FIOS TV is not currently available in the city of PGH). Verizon is able to offer fiber optic lines throughout a lot more of their network, which are much faster than coaxial cable. The bandwidth is not shared with other households. The phone service, therefore, is not compromised simply because of high internet traffic in the area, so it should be more reliable. I have never been a cable internet subscriber, but some that I know have reported a lot of trouble with decreased network speeds during times of high activity. I was happy that as a result of FIOS installation, they installed a brand new phonebox in the basement, replacing the old box that was outside nailed to the house, and also a new wire out to the pole. This arrangement allows us to use the phone lines for the phone, and the internet lines for the internet. If one goes out, the other won't be automatically affected, as necessarily happens with VoIP. Basically, if you really want reliable phone service, I would not recommend VoIP over existing phone service. Related: the Verizon technician pointed something interesting to me. I went with him back to the alley (Casanova Way, between N Euclid and N St. Clair) and he showed me the huge mess that technicians have made of the wiring above that alley. The poles look like some sort of squid ink pasta disaster, with masses and masses of wiring casually put up, criss-crossing properties in all sorts of ways. He assured me that is was nothing but laziness on the part of past technicians. I would suggest that anyone who gets line work done should always try to make sure that the technician is doing a thorough and careful wiring job - it's their job to do that. Also, if your property is connected via a wire that spans someone else's property, you should know that is known as "aerial trespassing". It is apparently within the rights of the trespassed to cut those wires down. I'm now interested in looking at some of the other alleys in the neighborhood, to see if the same shoddy craftsmanship is on display. I'm expecting that it will be...I'd love to be wrong, of course. On Mon, May 5, 2008 at 12:00 PM, <neighborhood-request@highlandparkpa.com> wrote:

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Today's Topics:

1. Comcast Digital Voice (Barbara Dickson-Valcheff)

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Barbara Dickson-Valcheff <eventlady@hotmail.com> To: HPListServe <neighborhood@highlandparkpa.com> Date: Mon, 5 May 2008 10:39:24 -0400 Subject: [Highland Park] Comcast Digital Voice Can anyone with a technical aptitude render an educated opinion on the quality/reliability of the Comcast Digital Voice service as compared to available alternatives?

While I have a limited ability to understand communications technology, the Comcast tech who installed this Internet-based service indicated that by it's nature it will be temperamental and unreliable, much more so than their discontinued cable line service. My understanding is that Verizon is moving towards the same internet-based product and therefore isn't much different.

Since copper lines are regarded as the most reliable in the event of cable and/or cell tower service disruptions, suggestions on the best way to get reliable land-line phone service are welcome. Many Thanks, Barb Dickson

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