Quote Originally Posted by bubba
Glad to see you back Phil. I can sympathize with your problems with the TelCo, I've had that kind of hassle too. Being told they'd hook up DSL, stalled for a month, then told DSL isn't available in my area, then the neighbor getting DSL the next week. Miserable service, techs that cause more damage than anything else.
One point about digital phone service via cable, if you have a power outage your phone will be out too since it depends on the cable modem. Personally, since I hate talking on the phone anyway I don't see this as a particularly bad thing.
I was worried about the power-outage problem myself but our local provider, Cox Communications, has come up with an ingenious solution. They now feed a small amount of power through the cable lines just like the phone company does, so even if you get a power outage in your area, the phones will still work as long as they are traditional land-line phones and not cordless ones! And thankfully, the power usage of a landline phone is so insignificant that the power in the cable lines doesn't affect TV or modem use. Unfortunately, it's not enough to keep either of those alive during a blackout, but at least the phones will work.

You might want to suggest that your local provider try that too. From what the lady at Cox told me, it was a customer who suggested it to them and it turned out to be an incredibly easy fix to implement.