Quote:
Originally Posted by Cinisajoy
Dennis,
Uverse is supposed to be fiber optics as opposed to DSL and also it has a VOIP connection so your phone and Internet are one in the same.
Note: I have U verse but not a VOIP line.
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Doesn't matter. The question is whether you can change what is used to connect to their network. What the network itself is is a detail.
My first broadband, a dozen years or so ago, was actual DSL through what is now Verizon. Cable modem wasn't available where I was at the time, so DSL was the option. I installed a splitter jack on my copper phone line to connect a line to the vendor supplied DSL modem, and my phone line did both voice and data.
My cable provider is TimeWarner, and they recalled I'd enquired about a cable modem. When service became available where I was, they sent me a note. I could get a self-install kit with modem for $99, and pick it up across the street from my then office. Sold! I bought, connected, and was online in 15 minutes, at four times the speed of my DSL line for the same price. I kept the DSL line for a while as a high speed backup, and for a while I had two ISPs and two network interfaces. This mightily confused the software firewall I was running and required me to change firewalls. Cable service was reliable enough that I eventually dropped the DSL line.
TimeWarner was pusing VOIP at me as part of a triple play cable/Internet/VOIP bundle. I held off because it was a cost savings only if you made LD calls, and for practical purposes I didn't. Verizon's basic local loop charges eventually edged up to just over what VOIP would cost, and I switched. Immediately after, I found myself in a project that required living on the phone long distance to points south for a month. VOIP made that feasible.
TimeWarner is fending off Verizon FOIS and I benefit. My bandwidth has steadily increased at no change in my costs. Most recently, it was an upgrade for 20mbit "Turbo" service to 100mbit. That required a new combo modem/router that TimeWarner supplied, but I could use my own. They published a list of compatible devices users could install. (And they
wanted you to, as one less thing they maintained.)
FIOS service isn't available where I am, but TimeWarner doesn't know that. And I'm happy with their service in any case. When I dropped the landline, I was
delighted to say goodbye to Verizon, and have no desire to renew the relationship.
And I couldn't get a copper POTS line now in any case. VZ wants to make copper go away, and I don't blame them. Folks whose service was trashed by hurricane Sandy will not have it repaired. Their options are cell phone or VIOP via FIOS. Existing working copper will be maintained. New copper will not be run.
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Dennis