On Friday March 02 2018 15:04, you wrote to Björn Felten:
BF>> Unfortunately no. For more than ten years now I'm VoIP only,
HD> Yes, but even with a VoIP line you could dial analog to other FidoNet HD> systems which have POTS connectivity.
It is possible, but from a technical POV it is crazy. Converting a bit stream (digital signal) to analog and then digitizing the analog signal again to send it over a digital channel is like a man on horse in a trailer behind a car. Just dispence with the horse, the trailer and the chauffeur and let the man just drive the car.
HD> And remarkably enough I even got 28.800 bps connects to another system HD> using VoIP while I am POTS only.
Who wants 28K POTS when you have a 40M+ channel at a fraction of the cost? I had POTS modem over VOIP istalled in parallel with Fido over IP for five years. Other than a few prearranged testt, nobody called, I made no outgoing calls. All those years all the modem did was convert electricity into heat. So I threw it out. Never missed it. For me POTS is history.
BF>> so the phone line goes down with the internet line. :(
HD> A situation I always want to avoid.
Not at EUR 100+ a year extra cost.
HD> With a POTS Line you can call emergency at 112, HD> even if the electricity grid falls down, HD> and/or the GSM 2G, 3G, 4G does not work. HD> We call that a "Life Line",
My "fixed" telephone line has been VOIP for well over a decade. In all those years I have never been in a situation that I needed to call 112 AND the VOIP line was down AND none of our cell phones worked either.
HD> because the POTS line is battery backed up at the central point of the HD> provider as it always was.
Yes it was in the old days of exchanges with relays and rotary switches. The batteries had enough power for a couple of days. I seriously doubt that is still the case with today's technology. Even so POTS is not and never was 100% full proof either. When someone accidentally cuts a cable it is also gone. And if the bomb drops, nothing will work any more.
