why require any upgrade from analog phone?
I have been looking over the comments in the phone forum about analog users being forced to upgrade or have their phones just cut off like that, etc. This is not right or good service and it is not ...
Forum Discussion
I think you're confused about analog and digital stuff. If you've had Cox phone service for 20 years, you've been on a digital system and have been using either a phone modem or some type of voice port installed somewhere in your house to connect to the digital system. That device is the only thing to change.
There are 2 types of wiring systems for telephone: a system outside your house and a system inside your house. The system outside your house has changed 3 times since 1997 and your telephone has always worked...and will continue to work.
There was a bygone era when the sole purpose of those telephone lines strung upon wooden poles was to only deliver phone service to your home. That was called the Plain Old Telephone System (POTS) and was an analog system.
Beginning in 2003, Cox switched from POTS to a Digital Telephone Service. Meaning, Cox stopped using those analog lines and combined all your services (Internet, TV, phone) onto 1 coaxial cable connected to your house. This is a digital system. You've been on this digital system for 16 years.
Although the new phone service was digital, it was still a digital signal traveling on a circuit-switched system outside your house. From a provider's point-of-view, circuit-switching is not economical because every phone call requires a dedicated circuit(s) to remain open until both parties hung up. Although you're paying for the dedicated circuit, it's a waste of resources for 1 phone call.
Cox is transitioning from the circuit-switching technology to a packet-switching technology, aka Voice over IP...VoIP...Cox Voice, using the same digital system you've been on for 16 years. The only thing that's changing is how your phone calls will travel on the network outside your house.
The system inside your house has not...and will not...change. The system inside your house will continue to be an analog system using analog devices. Telephone calls have been arriving at your house as a digital signal...your telephone modem then converts the digital signal to analog...your telephone modem then passes the analog signal onto your home wiring system...your home wiring system then delivers the analog signal to your Radio Shack caller ID box, recorder and regular corded phone. None of this will change.
There are no "digital" telephones. There are analog telephones with digital features, such as answering machines with digital storage...cordless handsets with digital transmissions...and call-blockers with some type of binary logic, but they all will still use analog telephone signals from your wall jacks. All subscribers of telephone service use analog phones. There are IP Phones, but these don't connect to traditional phone jacks (RJ11)...nor use a modem because all the hardware and software to make calls is inside the phone..
Your phone service is not going digital. It's been digital. Whatever equipment you're using now, you will continue to use. Nothing will die.
If I have been wrong in my thinking, I apologize. So if I allow Cox technician to come on my property and they switch out the outside box and they also install a phone modem in the house somewhere (all my plugs are full so I don't know where they will put it) , that I will be able to use the phone and continue my dialup service without any service issues popping up as I have all these years? You swear by it?
- Hi there, I certainly understand your reluctance to change equipment that's working just fine because I'm just like you; however, the changes and upgrades in technology demands that Cox updates their network and equipment to maintain continued operating efficiency. So as a Cox employee I too had to swap out my perfectly fine working equipment that's outdated and being phased out and no longer supported. Based on how you've explained your set-up at home when our Tech comes to swap out our old and install the new telephone equipment it's very IMPORTANT that you tell them you want to keep all of your telephone wall jacks activated. To do that the Tech will need clear access to all of your wall phone jacks (and they don't move furniture). Feel free to ask the Tech any questions you may have and I'm sure they'll answer them. As you can see here there's plenty of support to answer all of your questions, and our Technical Support Team's available 24/7 to schedule that appointment for you. We look to receive your call real soon! -Carol
Swearing would assume everything goes right...and I can't swear to that, If you don't have service after your conversion, I can only swear your equipment would not be the fault.
