[asterisk-users] life safety system and VOIP

[Jeff LaCoursiere]

On Tue, 17 Feb 2009, Don E. Wisdom wrote:

>
> In a REAL emergency internet/cell is more likely to fail than the phone 
> companys pots network. Cable/DSLAM etc only have about 4 hours of 
> battery power.  The CO has a entire battery room which will last a whole 
> lot longer.  Not to mention that it may stay up longer than your VoIP 
> network.  You also have to take into account everything between you& the 
> CO or cable company.  If just ONE thing fails you loose voip.  Copper is 
> a lot more forgiving & has failover modes versus the phone co's ATM 
> network or the cable companies "network" (or lack there of)

This depends heavily on where you are.  In the Virgin Islands the most 
reliable Internet access is served wireless, with dedicated radios on the 
roof.  Everyone has a diesel generator because the power goes out all the 
time.  The phone company (that happens to be digging itself out of chapter 
11 right now) has just as bad a reputation, and the last time there was a 
bad hurricane, the only service that was working was the Internet link. 
Of course when your diesel runs out you are SOL...

j