On Tue, 1 Aug 2017 15:03:55 -0600 (MDT), Justan wrote:

John H Wrote in message:
On Mon, 31 Jul 2017 17:11:52 -0700 (PDT), Its Me wrote:

On Monday, July 31, 2017 at 7:11:31 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Mon, 31 Jul 2017 17:18:02 -0400, John H
wrote:

On Mon, 31 Jul 2017 16:31:26 -0400, wrote:

On Mon, 31 Jul 2017 14:09:28 -0400, John H
wrote:

The strange one is when your own number pops on the caller ID.

My cell phone number shows up quite often on my land line CID. If I'm running around and think of
something I want to remember later, I'll often call my home phone and leave a message as a reminder.
Works well.
I am talking about the POTS number showing up on the POTS caller ID.

What is POTS?
Plain Old Telephone Service

I beat ya to it.

Technically it's a 2-wire loop start telephone line. When you come off-hook, you draw loop current on the line, which signals the office that you want dial tone. When a trunk is available, you get dial tone. Then you dial the number, and the office PABX connects you. Their PABX send ring voltage down the POTS line to their phone, which (in the old days) rings the mechanical bell. They pick up, and you have a talkpath connection between the phones.

Interesting, if you've never travelled outside the US, you've probably never waited on dial tone. Some phone systems don't have enough capacity in some countries to handle the volume. The first time I experienced it was in Venezuela. I picked up the phone in the hotel, and waited about 20-30 seconds for dial tone. When I told the operator I wanted to make a call back to the US, they said they'd call me back when a circuit was available. About 15 minutes later I got a return call and my call went through. This was over 20 years ago.

And now I can use Skype to call a Netherlands land line for 2.3 cents a minute, with super quality.


How is the video on skype now?

I have very good luck with it. The Netherlands is almost always good. Belarus is usually good.
Stateside is always super, even when my daughter uses her cell phone.