I switched to FiOS a couple of weeks ago, finally letting go of Time Warner cable after 20+ years. My main interest was increased upload speeds, a category in which TWC does not even claim more than 20mbps. Now I have what FiOS says is consistent 150mbps up and 150mbps down, a claim which appears to be true assuming speedtest.net is to be believed:
One of the FiOS “features” I did not want but could find no way to opt out of was the inclusion of another phone line. With this unwanted FiOS line I now have at least 6 phone numbers, not counting numbers I was assigned when registering for access to a number of VoIP developer APIs.
I intended to just ignore the new FiOS line and never plug it in to an actual phone but I happened to see a comment to the effect that old rotary dial phones work over FiOS. When an old rotary dial phone I have did not work over magicJack I assumed the same would hold true for any VoIP network. Obviously I was wrong, as it appears you can use old rotary dial phones to make and receive calls over Time-Warner Cable’s internet service, not just FiOS.
I thought it might be cool to have a working rotary dial in the house as a conversation piece. There is something majestic about the glacial pace at which people used to dial phone numbers using rotary dial phones. I also like the sound of the bells ringing when the phone receives a call. It sounds like 1981 is calling.
Alas, almost from the moment I plugged in the phone came call after call from collection agencies looking for someone named Alonzo, from the Uber car service demanding that I call the mayor, and from a bunch of silent callers that I assume are from autodialers waiting for someone to say something. It is a tiresome backwash of calls to a recycled number.
I might plug the phone in to a computer voicemail and collect recordings of the calls as an audio museum of sorts, but it is more likely that I’ll just put the phone back in the closet.
