[Myrddin]

VoIP phones *are* real phones. And those with cable broadband and VoIP service are completely off the telephone company grid, e.g., not a trace of Verizon in the house.

I don't buy it. The cable company doesn't have long haul digital lines. They buy T1 -> OC16 connectivity from a phone company to host the connections to the internet. The telcos may be out of the class 5 end office switch business for VoIP, but they are still carrying the traffic.

[neb52]

"I don't buy it. The cable company doesn't have long haul digital lines. They buy T1 -> OC16 connectivity from a phone company to host the connections to the internet. The telcos may be out of the class 5 end office switch business for VoIP, but they are still carrying the traffic."

This is partially correct, like SBC and other Telcos/Cable Companies they get their backend from a Tier 1 providers like MCI/Wiltel/AT&T and so forth. Level3 a Tier1 is one of the biggest when it comes to providing a gateway to terminating phone calls from VOIP and Digital POTS. This is the reason why SBC and Verizon are buying out the two biggest Tier1s. Also Cable Companies may not use backends, but have peering agreements to connect their network up with another big network. I would imagine Comcast and Time Warner would be the only two big enough to have that status, but I am not for sure.