Widespread phone glitch in 8th day

From THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC

Up to a half-million Cox Communications residential telephone customers in Arizona were fuming Wednesday as they endured the eighth consecutive day of a widespread voice-mail service outage.

Reports from media outlets in California and Nevada indicated Cox telephone customers in those states also had been without the ability to leave or retrieve voice-mail messages for at least a week.

Customers still had the ability to make and receive calls as of 3 p.m. Wednesday, but unanswered calls prompted an “experiencing technical difficulties” message from Cox followed by a busy signal, rather than picking up to voice mail.

Cox has more than 2 million cable-TV, Internet and telephone customers in Arizona, including an estimated 1.7 million customers in the Phoenix area.

Company spokeswoman Andrea Katsenes would not disclose how many customers were affected by the extended outage but did say that less than one-fourth of all Cox customers use the company’s residential telephone service.

Still, that could mean as many as 500,000 in Arizona are without voice mail.

Katsenes confirmed that the outage began Feb. 21 and said the company had been working diligently to resolve the problem.

She would not disclose the cause of the outage or what steps were being taken to fix it.

There seemed to be confusion and mixed signals about the voice-mail problem even within the company Wednesday, as customers reported being given incorrect information when calling Cox for help.

Wednesday morning, Cox sent an e-mail to its phone customers stating, “We are glad to inform you that voice mail has now been fully restored.”

However, several calls and e-mails to Cox customers to confirm the company’s announcement made it clear that the voice-mail service continued to be plagued with problems.

Cox telephone customer David Berk of Cave Creek said in an e-mail that he still was unable to retrieve voice-mail messages as of 2 p.m. Wednesday.

Berk said he had tried calling his voice-mail box 10 times and had received a busy signal every time.

“What is the problem?” he said. “Why can’t Cox fix it after a week?”

After informing Katsenes that customers still were having problems, The Republic received an e-mail from her saying, “This situation is fluid, but I promise to keep you up to date as things change.”

“Earlier today we restored voice-mail service,” she said. “Unfortunately, due to unforeseen technical issues, we continue to experience a service disruption.”

Since the outage began, Cox has said affected customers would be given the option of setting up call-forwarding service to another phone number for free. In addition, the company said it would issue automatic bill credits to affected phone customers, reimbursing them for the period in which their voice mail did not function.

The Cox technical support number in the Phoenix area is 623-594-1000, and updates on technical problems can be found at ww2.cox.com/myconnection/community/alert.cox.

Reach the reporter at craig.anderson@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-86

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/2012/02/29/20120229widespread-phone-glitch-th-day.html#ixzz1ntzAoWUh

WHY VOIP IS DEAD

Yes You heard right Why VOIP is dead
Here is why you absolutely need a physical landline, an old-fashioned phone number. You may think of me what you will, but think of these too;

Are you aware that the entire internet edifice stands on chicken legs, ready to topple over at any time? Any loss of a major server means loss of service for you. And servers are not impregnable. Anything from human error to malicious hacker or terrorist attack can take down a server, sometimes for good.

Ever hear the old story about the hospital where life-support patients kept dying at mid-day? The wards were clean, the technology top-notch. The doctors were some of the finest in the country. Nurses more sweet and dedicated than their just weren’t found. So why were people dying every day? Well, they hired a crack detective team to get to the bottom of it. Eventually they noticed that it all was happening in one ward, and in one room. Two officers disguised themselves as trashcans and put in a 24 hr. watch. Sure enough, around one o’clock in the afternoon the orderly came round to do his vacuuming. He went to the electrical outlet in the corner, pulled out what was currently plugged in, and attached his vacuum. Um, the life-support machines had been plugged in there….

Would you risk that happening to your phone service?

We did some research and found only 2 or 3 companies still selling POTS lines at a discounted price. You can check out Pioneer Telephone but they do not offer an unlimited local and long distance plan. You can call your local phone company like Verizon and have a large phone bill at the end of the month. If you live in the NY NJ region you may want to check out Cucumber Communications
They have very affordable phone plans. Especially if you are bundling local and long distance you will see a significant savings

Ever heard of the folks who carry a spare cellphone around the house for emergencies? They keep it powered and when Junior is going for a hike in the woods they slip it into his knapsack. Not because they expect things to go wrong, but just in case. They know; A phone can save lives.

Its good policy.

And your home phone can save lives too. When things go all haywire, when you are hunkering down under a table after a hurricane has blown your roof off your house, that telephone may be your lifeline. But only if its working. Any phone that needs the electricity to work is no good. And a VOIP telephone works only on electricity. When the power is down your phone is good for nothing. Only a solid old-fashioned landline will work without electric power in your home. I would be amiss if I did not state the obvious; landlines are not absolutely foolproof either – a falling tree or two can take out the phone lines nicely. But getting both a landline and a VOIP line really secures the best of both worlds for you.

If the power dies you have the plain-old telephone service phone line, and for the usual use you can choose to use the VOIP line.

So for two reasons you need to have a physical landline, the one you thought is ancient history; 1. The VOIP is based on the internet, which is becoming more of a terrorist target with every passing day, and 2. because it needs electrical power to work, something that is often missing precisely when you need it most. So although VOIP is a wonderful alternative, safety precautions dictate that you have a landline as well as an internet line. Its like insurance; you don’t want to need it, but you need it to be there for you. Just in case.

Phone Service Out in Part of McLean County

An Accident in McLean County, KY has knocked out phone service to part of the area.

According to McLean County Emergency Management, phone service, including 911 service, was knocked out after a dump truck hit a utility line. As a result, all phone service has been cut along on US 431, north from the city limits of Livermore.

Because 911 service is also affected, residents on US 431 with any type of emergency should go to the Livermore City Hall to request assistance. Those emergency reports will then be relayed to the McLean County 911 Center.

Phone service is not expected to be restored until later this afternoon.

SOURCE:TRISTATEHOMEPAGE

FCC to overhaul Lifeline phone service for low-income homes

FROM CONSUMER REPORTS:

The Federal Communication Commission voted yesterday to overhaul the national Lifeline program, a means of providing low-cost home land-line telephone service to low-income families in the U.S. The pending changes are intended to cut $2 billion in federal costs over the next three years, as well as modernize the federal program—adding low-cost home broadband Internet access to the mix, for one thing.

The FCC‘s unanimous vote (3-0) for Lifeline program changes are intended to help check the rising amount of fraud and abuse.

Under the current setup, for example, families who qualify under federal definitions of “low-income” can receive a $10 monthly discount for phone service. (The Lifeline program funds comes from the “Universal Service Fund Fee” that companies tack on every customer’s phone bill.) But in some cases, phone companies and wireless service providers have been able to bill the Lifeline program for multiple services to the same household.

Under the revised Lifeline service, the FCC will create a National Lifeline Accountability Database to ensure that service providers do not receive multiple program funds for the same household. The program will also link to other federal databases that govern low-income benefits—say, Medicaid—to cut down on the potential of fraud and red tape among Lifeline applicants. Independent audits of phone-service providers participating in the program will occur every two years, says the FCC.

Bloomberg reports that the FCC has alreay saved about $33 million after removing 270,000 duplicate Lifeline subscriptions in just 12 states. And such savings—as well as increases to the Universal Service Fund Fees that feed Lifeline—will help expand the program to include low-cost home Internet access.

At yesterday’s meeting, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said, “Broadband has gone from being a luxury to a necessity in the 21st century.” The FCC will solicit applications from broadband-service providers to join a pilot program for home Net access this year.

Copper thieves disrupt phone service | DailyTidings.com

Copper thieves disrupt phone service | DailyTidings.com.

Residents advised of phone service upgrade at Brick Twp. Municipal Building

BRICK — The phone service to the Brick Township Municipal Building will undergo a required maintenance and upgrade beginning at 11 p.m. Tuesday and ending 7 a.m. Wednesday, according to a statement issued by the police department.

The 911 emergency phone system will not be affected, according to the statement.

However, phone service systems – including the police department – may be unavailable during this time, police said.

Anyone who experiences a difficulty when trying to contact police with a non-emergency call during the upgrade time period should call the Ocean County Sheriff’s Department at 732-349-2010.

SOURCE APP

Cucumber Communications Is Now Offering Lifeline Service

I have written about this company extensively in the past. One of the few companies that are selling Plain old Telephone Service still at a great price. Many Low Income families can not afford basic necessities and it is important for everyone to have access to phone service The FCC with the help of the USF provides discounts on monthly telephone charges.
For more information about government assisted phone service check out cucumber.com or call them at 1800-CUCUMBER