«

"steve" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Readers of nz.comp and nz.general may recall my previous posts regarding
> the
> Telecoms apparent inability to restore normal phone service in our area
> following the lightning storms over Kapiti / Horowhenua on July 12th.
>
> The voice line was briefly repaired in July 21st, for 4-5 hours, then
> failed
> again. On the bright side, the ADSL continued to function from the 21st.
>
> We were supposed to get a repair guy around on the 3rd of August, but he
> came early and showed up this afternoon.
>
> The phone still doesn't work as the fault is on the main cable just north
> of
> Foxton and that means the cable crew will have to locate the fault and
> repair it.
>
> They can't do that UNTIL THE END OF SEPTEMBER.
>
> So no land line for two MORE months for the homes north of Foxton in SH1.
>
> Meanwhile....as the Internet is working, I've signed up for SkypeOut and
> we
> have been using that for outgoing calls. It fairly reliable....and about
> 10% of the cost of even the cheapest cell rates / minute.
>
> ...and because we have 3.5M / 512k we can now make several outgoing phone
> calls at the same time......something we could not do before.
>
> So if Telecom never do sort it out, we appear to have developed a
> functional
> alternative that actually works out cheaper than the $38 / month Telecom
> line rental (which we currently aren't paying as we don't have a line).
>
>
>
>

Well you are getting naked DSL, so you should ask them that you want to keep
it. They should also provide you with a free cell phone with free unlimited
local calling, and regular landline toll rates.

Readers of nz.comp and nz.general may recall my previous posts regarding the
Telecoms apparent inability to restore normal phone service in our area
following the lightning storms over Kapiti / Horowhenua on July 12th.

The voice line was briefly repaired in July 21st, for 4-5 hours, then failed
again. On the bright side, the ADSL continued to function from the 21st.

We were supposed to get a repair guy around on the 3rd of August, but he
came early and showed up this afternoon.

The phone still doesn't work as the fault is on the main cable just north of
Foxton and that means the cable crew will have to locate the fault and
repair it.

They can't do that UNTIL THE END OF SEPTEMBER.

So no land line for two MORE months for the homes north of Foxton in SH1.

Meanwhile....as the Internet is working, I've signed up for SkypeOut and we
have been using that for outgoing calls. It fairly reliable....and about
10% of the cost of even the cheapest cell rates / minute.

....and because we have 3.5M / 512k we can now make several outgoing phone
calls at the same time......something we could not do before.

So if Telecom never do sort it out, we appear to have developed a functional
alternative that actually works out cheaper than the $38 / month Telecom
line rental (which we currently aren't paying as we don't have a line).

steve wrote:
> Readers of nz.comp and nz.general may recall my previous posts regarding the
> Telecoms apparent inability to restore normal phone service in our area
> following the lightning storms over Kapiti / Horowhenua on July 12th.
>
> The voice line was briefly repaired in July 21st, for 4-5 hours, then failed
> again. On the bright side, the ADSL continued to function from the 21st.
>
> We were supposed to get a repair guy around on the 3rd of August, but he
> came early and showed up this afternoon.
>
> The phone still doesn't work as the fault is on the main cable just north of
> Foxton and that means the cable crew will have to locate the fault and
> repair it.
>
> They can't do that UNTIL THE END OF SEPTEMBER.
>
> So no land line for two MORE months for the homes north of Foxton in SH1.
>
> Meanwhile....as the Internet is working, I've signed up for SkypeOut and we
> have been using that for outgoing calls. It fairly reliable....and about
> 10% of the cost of even the cheapest cell rates / minute.
>
> ...and because we have 3.5M / 512k we can now make several outgoing phone
> calls at the same time......something we could not do before.
>
> So if Telecom never do sort it out, we appear to have developed a functional
> alternative that actually works out cheaper than the $38 / month Telecom
> line rental (which we currently aren't paying as we don't have a line).

Dont tell telecom that, apparantly its "impossible" to get adsl without buying a
phoneline off them

Vista wrote:

> Well you are getting naked DSL, so you should ask them that you want to
> keep it. They should also provide you with a free cell phone with free
> unlimited local calling, and regular landline toll rates.

We get free, unlimited incoming calls via the land line number....and a
$10 / day credit for outgoing calls from the cellphone.

That $10 / day doesn't get you much.....but at least by using SkypeOut as
well means we don't have to use the cellphone for (most) outgoing calls.

Richard wrote:

> Dont tell telecom that, apparantly its "impossible" to get adsl without
> buying a phoneline off them

The story from the "Transfeld" (?) repair guy was that the nature of the
damage allows ADSL to still function on the line while voice calls cannot.
The line is buried (SH1)......and so they can't just climb a poll and fix
it.

They don't know where in the 4kms of cable the break is....and in worst case
might have to dig all of it up to find it.

steve wrote:
> Richard wrote:
>
>> Dont tell telecom that, apparantly its "impossible" to get adsl
>> without buying a phoneline off them
>
> The story from the "Transfeld" (?) repair guy was that the nature of
> the damage allows ADSL to still function on the line while voice
> calls cannot. The line is buried (SH1)......and so they can't just
> climb a poll and fix it.
>
> They don't know where in the 4kms of cable the break is....and in
> worst case might have to dig all of it up to find it.
>
If they told you that it is *******s. Unless the technology has changed
dramatically you can identify a break to within a few metres by,
basically, echo location. You squirt a signal down the line and time the
bounce from the break. I don't know if that works with fibre, though.

Cheers,

Cliff

"Enkidu" <> wrote

>>> Dont tell telecom that, apparantly its "impossible" to get adsl
>>> without buying a phoneline off them
>>
>> The story from the "Transfeld" (?) repair guy was that the nature of
>> the damage allows ADSL to still function on the line while voice
>> calls cannot. The line is buried (SH1)......and so they can't just
>> climb a poll and fix it.
>>
>> They don't know where in the 4kms of cable the break is....and in
>> worst case might have to dig all of it up to find it.
>>
> If they told you that it is *******s. Unless the technology has changed
> dramatically you can identify a break to within a few metres by,
> basically, echo location. You squirt a signal down the line and time the
> bounce from the break. I don't know if that works with fibre, though.

Optical Time Domain Reflectometry?

I can assure you it DOES work.

I used to manage the Telecom lab were the OTDRs were calibrated and tested.
HP manufactured them.

From memory, they can identify a break to within about 5 metres over a 4km
run....

"steve" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Readers of nz.comp and nz.general may recall my previous posts regarding
> the
> Telecoms apparent inability to restore normal phone service in our area
> following the lightning storms over Kapiti / Horowhenua on July 12th.
>
> The voice line was briefly repaired in July 21st, for 4-5 hours, then
> failed
> again. On the bright side, the ADSL continued to function from the 21st.
>
> We were supposed to get a repair guy around on the 3rd of August, but he
> came early and showed up this afternoon.
>
> The phone still doesn't work as the fault is on the main cable just north
> of
> Foxton and that means the cable crew will have to locate the fault and
> repair it.
>
> They can't do that UNTIL THE END OF SEPTEMBER.
>
> So no land line for two MORE months for the homes north of Foxton in SH1.
>
> Meanwhile....as the Internet is working, I've signed up for SkypeOut and
> we
> have been using that for outgoing calls. It fairly reliable....and about
> 10% of the cost of even the cheapest cell rates / minute.
>
> ...and because we have 3.5M / 512k we can now make several outgoing phone
> calls at the same time......something we could not do before.
>
> So if Telecom never do sort it out, we appear to have developed a
> functional
> alternative that actually works out cheaper than the $38 / month Telecom
> line rental (which we currently aren't paying as we don't have a line).
>
Pity you cant get a NZ skype in number yet


-KENT

Kent Smith wrote:

> Pity you cant get a NZ skype in number yet

Lag on skype back to NZ phones was aweful last time I tried it, sweet as
everywhere else in the world tho, Would the call the other way really be any better?

In article <44d05e8c$>, "BTMO" <> wrote:
>
>From memory, they can identify a break to within about 5 metres over a 4km
>run....

And they have small, light, easy-to-use devices to do it with. Back in my
day, we had to do it the hard way with an oscilloscope and a slide rule.
(Build an adapter out of T-pieces that feeds the calibration pulse output
from the Tektronix 453 scope to the line and then monitors the line for
echoes. Adjust timebase to an appropriate range for the length of the
cable. Measure the time to the reflection of interest, factor in the cable's
velocity factor, convert to distance.) Again back in those days, we (IBM)
had simple tools (a cassette recorder and a tape of test tones) for
making measurements (group delay distortion etc) that even the (then) NZ
Post Office transmission and lines branches couldn't do.

--
Don Hills (dmhills at attglobaldotnet) Wellington, New Zealand
"New interface closely resembles Presentation Manager,
preparing you for the wonders of OS/2!"
-- Advertisement on the box for Microsoft Windows 2.11 for 286