One of my major clients was about a mile away from the World Trade Center. Somewhere around the time the Towers came down, so did its phone service.
Let me be specific about this. The company had three different types of phone service. A T1 line for voice from AT&T. Four POTs lines for voice from Verizon, and a DSL serviced by Bway.net (through Covad, I believe, but over Verizon lines). Oh, I almost forgot, the company had cell phones.
When I say they lost their phone service, I mean the T went down and it took the behemoth AT&T 72 days to bring the line back up. Now, this client isn't just a phone user, they are a company that can be defined as a telemarketer (to their clients, not the world). They use the phone for sales, for negotiation, for follow-up, for everything. Faxes are used, and e-mail, but that usage is not nearly close to the high-level, non-stop phone conversations.
So, this little company survived on spotty cell phone service, the use of four POTs lines and e-mail. That DSL line never faulted, never went down. In fact, if it wasn't for the DSL line, I think the company would have floundered.
So, the next time you think about suggesting a DATA connection, think Plain Old Telephone Service and Digital Subscriber Lines.
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