[colug-432] Digital Phone?

[Rick Troth]

You've gotten good replies, but I had to chime in because I recognize
Marfa.


On 04/30/2014 04:09 PM, tom wrote:
> I got an inquiry from a friend who lives in Marfa TX:

Wow ... I know that place! Cool coincidence.

Marfa is known for "the Marfa Lights". Been there; seen that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marfa_lights
The "viewing platform" is East of Marfa along US 90. Keep heading East
and you'll come to Alpine. The whole area is fascinating, between BIg
Bend (a national park with no cell service!) and the Davis Mountains
(McDonald Observatory there).

> "I was talking to att u-verse about why my bill is so high.
>
> there is a bundle that is cheaper but I need to switch to digital phone,
>
> which they provide.

So the initial concern is current land-line charge. I have "just the
basics" (not u-verse) and find mine similarly unreasonable. I should
probably stop putting that off.

Many people have dropped land-line since they use cellular anyway and
cellular carriers now have more tolerable fees w/r/t talk time. Why pay
twice?

> I worry about computer and phone from the same thing because
>
> one or the other goes down out here at times.
>
> if the are the same when computer goes so does phone.

So a secondary concern is loss of comm (ie: for emergencies). I
recommend redundancy, but redundancy will increase the total cost
(compared to living with a single point of failure).

Ironically, phone lines were the most stable utility for most of the
20th century. The CO always had batteries online (before the concept of
UPS hit the rest of us). The lines were sufficiently buried strung low
enough that they survived wind better than other services. Electricity,
water, even sewer and gas were more likely to fail. "Those were the
days, my friend. We thought they'd never end."

> I am not familiar with the term "digital phone" I believe she has a land 
> line. I have heard from people that have had good and terrible 
> experience with att u-verse. I suggested that she put off the 
> appointment until I can find out more.

Dunno about u-verse. A good combination is cell phone with some kind of
wired connection for the computer. In that context, it doesn't matter if
it's DSL or cablemodem. Marfa does not suffer the total lack of cellular
coverage found down in Big Bend.

> She runs windows on a fairly new Dell. She is not at all tech savvy ... 

Marfa is an artsy place, so I read.

> ... and 
> so I am not going to suggest Linux for her. I started using google voice 
> for long distance and have chrome browser with hangouts on an other 
> laptop so I can talk long distance via my laptop. That's an experiment 
> to see how much google infringes on my privacy. I am thinking about 
> suggesting google voice, or chrome browser with hangouts for her if she 
> knows somebody local that can help her with it.

Others (that's me!) would like to hear your thoughts about Googoo
invading your privacy.

I mentioned Alpine, about 20+ miles East. Sul Ross State University is
there. (This group would enjoy their web page of the moment. Guessing
Heartbleed drove a re-install?) Probably can find techie people there. I
seem to remember contacts or connections there from when I lived in
Tejas, but cannot seem to dig them up at the moment.

> Any thoughts appreciated.

-- R; <><