WE Phones and FiOS Digital Voice

[MrKenmore]

Hi everyone!!!  I just switched from Viatalk VOIP to Verizon FiOS Digital Voice.  Via Talk was too unreliable and had lousy call quality.  With ViaTalk, to get my rotary WE phones working, I used a Mitel Smart-1 dialer which translated the pulse dialing to touch tone.  This worked pretty good.

So now I have FiOS Digital Voice.  There is no adapter as everything (wiring that is) is hooked up at the ONT where the fiber comes in.  The call quality is great.  And, best of all, Digital Voice supports pulse dialing!!!  What a bonus.  All calls must be dialed with the area code (no "1" is required). 

The only problem I have is the REN is inadequate.  I was previously ringing one WE 500, one WE 554 and one Sculptura.  With the old VOIP, all these would ring real loud.  I had to go down to only one WE 500 in order to get a full blown ring with Verizon.  This is kinda a bummer.  The Verizon tech on the phone had no clue what REN was.  He was able to finally tell me my REN was just over 2.  I asked if he could bump it to 5 and he said he couldn't but maybe they could send a tech out.  That of course would be useless as there is nothing to see.  Not the end of the world.  I may pick up something like the Viking RG10A ring amplifier.  Maybe that will help.  Overall I am pleased. 

[Phonesrfun]

Unfortunately, we are headed into a digital world with phones.  The designers of the Analog terminal adapters (ATA's) seem to think there are no more legacy phones out there with rotary dials and non-electronic ringers.  We seem to be in the minority.

Someone needs to design a universal ATA that will work with all digital providers that will truly support the rotary dial phone, but like that will ever happen!

The more likely reality is that the analog phone (even the newer electronic analog phones) will just go away.  Already cell phones have all but killed the legacy land line service, and the newer "land lines" that rely on FIOS, cable, DSL or other means of delivery will be terminated with a fully digital "phone".  That has already happened at the company I work for.  The phone on my desk plugs into the computer port, and is in no way an analog phone.  I am sure that some day, if not already, this will be the type of "phone" we will see for sale at Wal-Mart and Radio Shack and everywhere else.

Just my two cents.

[twocvbloke]

Someone needs to design a universal ATA that will work with all digital providers that will truly support the rotary dial phone, but like that will ever happen!

Panasonic KX-T308 or T616 hooked up to the FiOS ATA perhaps?

Or even any small PBX that supports rotary dialling, connect it up to any ATA and there you have pretty much what you describe...