Don't throw your TTY away!

Reba said:
I still have a TTY because there are some deaf people who don't have internet services, and that's the only way they can contact me. I know several who use TTY.

I'm surprised that your home phone goes out all the time.
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When we did have a landline, it didn't work if it even rained a little. It was a huge waste of money for us.
 
sallylou said:
My home phone goes out all of the time. Not that I use it. It's hard to use the cell phone after an emergency (like a hurricane) and then email is the best way to contact people. I don't know anyone who has TTY. I've seen the clunky machine before. Guess that if your have room to store it, there's no harm in that.
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rockin'robin said:
"Clunky machine"?....Not mine. It's an Ultratec. Lots smaller than my Dell computer screen, fits nicely upon my desk with my computer and my VP.
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At the time I pulled up this page TTY | eBay from Ebay just as an example of the different ones there was quite a range. I think the smallest one there for backup use is the Ultratec Compact TTY which folds in half the long way for storage.

I am sorry that this one proved to be so delicate that it was taken off the market.

Computers Live: Krown PocketComm TTY/VCO

I have two because they don't seem to stand up to the bumps and bangs of being carried in a woman's purse compared to clipped to a man's pants waistband. I used one from the time they came out in 2003 until this year when I got tired of doing an exchange or having repairs done to the tune of about $100 US per year. When in good shape, they work well with a cell phone.
 
sallylou said:
I have the kind of phone that has DSL. Maybe the phone goes out because of the cable? The cable company is putting in new lines so many that will help the situation.

Sometimes, the mysterious phone outages can be from toothly little critters known as squirrels. We have a ton of them.
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DSL is a technology from the phone company (such as AT & T's landline division) commonly used for higher speed internet service for your computer. If you have DSL there could be a problem with old phone cable but NOT the type of cable that carries cable TV from a company such as Charter.
 
ok, i just find the idea of all of the above going amok very very very very slim.

And that is when a disaster hits. Most likely all phone lines will be busy anyways.

if power was out you might not be able ot use TTY.

Comical reasons.
 
rockin'robin said:
My guess is you don't use Comcast, huh?....But anyhow, whenever ours goes out, I make a note of it...and call Comcast and tell them I'm due a refund. They take it off my bill....I'm not about paying for services that I don't receive! And they've gotten a LOT of calls and complaints from me. So whenever I have "threatened" to use another company...they automatically give me a big reduction on my bill in order to keep me, since I've been with them for 20 years, give or take....
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Yeah I don't use Comcast. I use Mediacom cable. I think Comcast gets a bit more outages than what I have. I pay $45 a month for 12 mbps connection.
 
I am surprised i notice it seem son throw on actually chareg I know not easy I am pretty frustrated on tty hard to now easy complication i know not easy I am pretty lots of complication how feeling!
 
a while ago before Irene came, the high level management in my dept just spreaded out the words and suggested if anythng go wrong with the communication then use text according to " noted from teenagers to parents, duh*

it made me smile. lol
 
I never toss my old TTY. I happy now. I using comcast cable modem for phone in-build battery back up.
 
I still have two TTY somewhere in the storage, one tty required translations cuz it produced bunch of garbage charaters and I guess the other one is working fine... haven't use it for age...

Really, there are many ways to contact 911 or needing to contact work, one way is to find nearest neighbor that have working phone (I know some may not be comfortable with that idea but for emergency case..they will understand) or if your roomate, spouse or SO plan to go to work and their systems is working then that person can call his/her work to let them know that he/she unable to come to work... or go to library that have power and internet or whatever. During the outages, what the company have is the mobile 3G/4G tower that run on gas generator being deployed in certain area where the main towers are down. This mobile 3G/4G towers are critical for emergency services (police, ambulance and fire services), so you all may not be out of reach using your mobile phone.
 
it is very problem on seems slow tty nut on crap I understand :lol: I am wish be on fast on smooth I am puzzled it weird on system seems problem I am pretty puzzled it!
 
SneakerNet said:
...Really, there are many ways to contact 911
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Such as?

... one way is to find nearest neighbor that have working phone
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You mean, if you have an emergency at night in your house, like a heart attack or a burglar breaking in, you're going to find a neighbor to make a phone call for you?

or if your roomate, spouse or SO
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Some people do live alone.

... or go to library that have power and internet or whatever
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That won't work if you're sick or injured, during an emergency, or during hours that they're closed.

During the outages, what the company have is the mobile 3G/4G tower that run on gas generator being deployed in certain area where the main towers are down. This mobile 3G/4G towers are critical for emergency services (police, ambulance and fire services), so you all may not be out of reach using your mobile phone.
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That seems promising. Very interesting. :)

Are they the same size as the regular towers? How quickly can they be set up? Do they keep lots of them around?
 
I guess none of you have deaf friends or relatives who don't have internet or cell phones.

Hard as it might be to believe, there are lots of people who don't.
 
I forgot to mention internet phone services such as Vonage that we saw alot of TV commericials about in the past. It's not a landline phone since it must be connected to internet which can be out of service sometimes anyway. My son told me that it takes up alot of internet speed so it's not worth it.

Off the point, Verizon FIOS is the best ISP as well as the best cable TV provider because it uses 100% fiber optic cable all the way from the service center to my home. The internet rarely goes down and in the event of a power outage, it has a 30-minutes battery back-up for internet use only with battery-powered laptops. I used to have DirecTV before and switched to FIOS for better picture quality in both SD and HD.
 
To the beginning of the convo about what if this what if that, sometimes these things just happen... if a hearing person's phone gets lost or stolen it's up that person to figure something out.

the way i see it is a deaf person who can't call in for work is in the same boat as a hearing person who can't call in for work.
 
CrazyPaul said:
Home phone services RARELY go down unless there's a big earthquake or tornado in your area.

Cable internet services frequently go down. That's a fact. My brother-in-law who used to work for the cable company said that the cable internet connection sucks. What's more, the guy who got fired has the cable internet (Time-Warner) which was down when he tried to call in sick. He was pissed off.

So my point is that the TTY which is connected to a home phone service should be kept as a back-up. I heard that some federal government agencies such as IRS don't accept VRS calls, only TTY calls accepted.
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Don't mean to same happen to anywhere. It's all depend where you live. My ISP cable had drop like 3-5 times a months till I found what cause it then I fixed it and rare drop a year.

Around two years ago, we lost power for almost one week due thunderstorm. Nothing of internet, even phoneline are work at all. Everyone's mobile works fine.

TTY still useless when you are far away from TTY like fall down the stair and hurt the leg due ice and use cell phone to call 911 or friend *happen to my father* How can you use TTY when you are in car accident, outside accident, etc?

I spoke federal government agency once and he hate TTY so much due very slow to communication. He loves VRS over TTY for fast communication.

Did you know that you can text to 911 from mobile? No relay need.

Again, use common sense to send a email, text, or relay FROM mobile to employer when ISP down or visit to place to let them know that you are very sick. That's right I send email to my HR and let her know that I was sick. We have no problem with that. It was happen in 2001 that time I dont know nothing about VRS in old time. I asked most of my employer's permission to use their cell phone as text for sick, accident, etc. They said SURE. Few times, they use texted me for call on or help or tell me to let boss/HR to know for sick (when boss's or HR's phone was very busy).
 
sequoias said:
Yeah I don't use Comcast. I use Mediacom cable. I think Comcast gets a bit more outages than what I have. I pay $45 a month for 12 mbps connection.
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I use Mediacom too and love it. Good price, fast, and no problem so far after I fixed it.
 
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