Tearing Up the Tracks: The Down Side of Digital Phone Service


By Aldene Fredenburg


Railroad service has been pretty much nonexistent in southwestern New Hampshire for decades as the automobile has replaced passenger service and eighteen-wheel tractor trailers have taken over most of the distribution of consumer goods.

About fifteen years ago someone, probably lusting after the copper content of the rails, tore up the tracks in the region. Almost no one noticed; snowmobile buffs welcomed the new trails, cyclists turned some of them into bike paths, and nobody else seemed to miss them or even realize that they were gone. Problem is, nobody remembered the region's history, either.

In 1938, long before satellite warning systems warned people of threatening weather conditions, a sudden, major hurricane devastated the state's Cheshire County. Acres upon acres of trees were uprooted and the roads and railways blocked by tree roots over twenty feet high, cutting the county off from the rest of the world. And the railroad cut through the debris first, clearing its tracks to provide the first access to the region from the outside. Considering this history, it seemed shortsighted to tear up the tracks.

What does any of this have to do with digital phone service?

It's this: Digital phone service is being pushed aggressively by cable and satellite TV providers as part of a new bundling concept. The consumer gets to buy TV programming, Internet access, and digital phone service, presumably for substantial savings over the services if purchased separately.

Problem is, if the electrical power goes out, so does the phone service. While Verizon and other phone companies provide back-up power for their phone customers, cable and satellite TV companies do not. That means if for some reason a natural disaster or other problem causes a widespread power outage, there's no calling friends and family to find out if they're okay, no calling out to see if stores and other facilities are open and no 9-1-1. Your ability to get emergency services if you need them is gone.

Of course, the cable and satellite companies have to inform you of this, and they do; just read the extremely fine print at the bottom of that colorful ad they send you periodically.

In choosing digital phone service over the current system, we're tearing up our telecommunications tracks with the encouragement of the federal government, who is pushing these changes along with digital TV programming. We need to be careful as we embrace the benefits of the newest technology that we don't lose the safety net provided by the dual power infrastructure currently in use by our electrical and phone utilities. We need to insist that these digital phone services include back-up power that can be accessed by a traditional landline phone, so that in an emergency, we have at least some chance of communicating and getting the help we need.

Aldene Fredenburg is a freelance writer living in southwestern New Hampshire. She has written numerous articles for local and regional newspapers and for a number of Internet websites, including Tips and Topics.


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