FiOS Digital Voice: VoIP or Not VoIP?

I switched to FiOS Triple Play in March 2012, and since then I have assumed that my FiOS Digital Voice phone was a VoIP product. Apparently so have many other folks, as the following quotes indicate:

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VZ Employee CharlesH wrote (04-28-2009 10:07 AM):

... we are releasing FiOS digital Voice all this summer which is our new VoIP product. ...

"kvelling" wrote (2008):

... it is a "regular" phone line that goes through optical cables. The ONT ... requires utility power to convert your telephone's electrical signals to optical signals ... The ONT includes a battery back-up to provide temporary power ...

VoIP is a different technique that essentially gives your telephone the ... appearance of a PC and competes solely on the internet with other PCs to get to the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network). Verizon's FiOS telephone service still functions as a regular telephone with its own, dedicated, optical cable connection to the PSTN instead of the previously dedicated copper cable connection to the PSTN --aka Central Office.

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Last week I converted my remaining VZ POTS (copper) line over to a second VZ Digital Voice line. I use this line for the home security alarm and for fax, and I was under the impression that most alarm systems that use standard alarm communications protocols will not function properly on a VoIP line. However when I re-wired the alarm for the new line and tested its communications with the central station, everything worked perfectly.

This led me to wonder if the VZ Digital Voice product truly is VoIP. I suspect it is not. To confuse things a little more, I called my alarm servicing company and asked if their system worked on VZ Digital Voice. The CSR stated that it definitely did not. I didn't argue with him because I am sure he also had assumed that VZ Digital Voice was VoIP.

I searched this forum and other online sources, and evidently some confusion remains on whether VZ Digital Voice is, or is not, VoIP. I am leaning in the direction that it functions as a standard POTS line that happens to be transmitted over a fiber network. If anyone here can offer more clarification, I'd certainly appreciate it.

Accepted answers

armond_in_nj1

@tns wrote:
I too suspect its somewhat of a hybrid .. The ONT was used to deliver my phone service even before I went to FDV ... I suspect nothing changes from your house to the CO in either case, and just the one service is the delivered over Verizon's old services in the one case, but in the other goes over the IP network ...

Thanks for the quick response. I'm interested in this issue because I don't want to wake up to find that the alarm system is disabled. Typically a broadband adapter is required to enable standard alarm systems to communicate over VoIP. My system functions correctly over VZ Digital Voice, so that's why I'm interested in clarification.

All comments

tns

I too suspect its somewhat of a hybrid.

The ONT was used to deliver my phone service even before I went to FDV. I suspect nothing changes from your house to the CO in either case, and just the one service is the delivered over Verizon's old services in the one case, but in the other goes over the IP network. Probably the ont converts your call to digital and sends some sort of packets (not necessarily TCP/IP) in either case.

armond_in_nj1

@tns wrote:
I too suspect its somewhat of a hybrid .. The ONT was used to deliver my phone service even before I went to FDV ... I suspect nothing changes from your house to the CO in either case, and just the one service is the delivered over Verizon's old services in the one case, but in the other goes over the IP network ...

JerryTech1

Mine is disabled on FiOS...

my alarms paging function & programability is caput over FiOS, been working with them on the issue for like a year now.

[Deleted User]

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