phone w/ out conventional phone lines?

[grundy]

Hi all

I was just talking to my mom, trying to find a broadband solution for her (she lives in the country, and connects at abt 19 BITS/sec)

Problem is, her phone lines (which go underground from service pole to house, a distance of abt 100' if memory serves) are old and apparantly in terrible shape. Her phone is staticy and getting worse. She doesn't want to replace the underground line because that would mean cutting through an old rock wall, through an ornamental pond, and through well established landscaping, which is her pride and joy.

Does digital phone service come over the phone line or through a cable line? I'm assuming a cable could be strung from the pole to the house without going underground, but I'm not sure about that...

Is there satellite phone service? I think that satellite broadband may be her only solution.

Any other solutions?

[Qwijib0]

In some areas, you can get digital telephone from the cable company, cox offers it in phoenix, satellite is too expensive and latent to be worth her while.

[poptom]

It must be in a conduit. Can't you just pull new wires through it?

[grundy]

Qwijibo - no digital phone in her area. I guess that answers it about satellite...

Poptom - I hadn't thought of that. it's certainly worth a try...

[YARDofSTUF]

well if regular cans on a string can be used to talk to ppl, chunky soup cans should get a down stream of 33.6 kbps

[poptom]

That's what I have. (Conduit, not soup cans). If that's the case, here's how you do it:

Use the old wires to pull the new. Loop the two together and fold them back 4-6inches. It has to be a strong connection. Wrap the joint with electrical tape, tapering it off so it doesn't snag.

Use a wire pulling lube. It's a creamy wax in a squeeze bottle. Lots of it at the joint to make it slippery. Apply it with a rag or paper towel as you feed the wires.

It takes two people,one pulling and one feeding, and you need to communicate. I have a pair of Maxon headset radios that I use for things like this.

If the joint separates, you'll have to start over using a fish tape.

Good luck. Have fun. Tell us about it.

[grundy]

well, it'll be a while 'till I'm up there again, but I'll be sure to let you know.

[grundy]

well, problem solved.

pac bell had been telling my mom that it was her responsibility to replace the lines from the service pole to the house. last week the phone was barely working so, she had service tech come out. the tech listened to her, told her that it was utter nonsense and that it was pac bell's responsibility, threw on a temporary drop line, took off.

saturday, which was my stepdad's birthday, another tech showed up, did some tests (it turned out the lines were direct buried, so there was no way to just pull new ones) and then proceeded to replace the lines.

amazing - a problem which had been worrying mom for the last few years solved in two days by two extremely friendly techs.

[poptom]

Thanks for the feedback. Glad it's working OK.

Pac Bell is responsible for everything up to the entry box, wherever it's located. Did he run the new wires overhead or in the ground?

[grundy]

overhead.

he was a really nice guy.

my mom's garden is her pride and joy. underground lines would require trenching, which would disturb the landscaping, while overhead lines might be ugly... after some friendly debate, he suggested hanging overhead lines, and if we didn't like them, he would take them down. He agreed that code (18") for the trench was silly, and that if we wanted underground lines, we could put in our own conduit, and he would pull the lines and forget to ask us how deep it was.

the overhead lines looked fine, so mom kept them.

[Rainbow]

Not necessarily in conduit. Depends how long its been there. Phone companies use to go with direct burial cable. And even if it is in conduit for all those years whats the chance of pulling new lines 100 plus feet using the old line. Not very likely Im afraid.
Overhead MAY be an option but if your over 100 feet from the last pole they wont do it. You woud have to put a pole in half way.

oops guess I'm a little late