Is a connected phone necessary for DSL to work?

[Lynfidel]

I have been having connectivity issues with my DSL for many months (ever since they rolled out FIOS in my town). I figured out that when service gets dropped, I don't have to reboot my modem, all I have to do is plug an analog phone (with filter) into the DSL line for a second, go off hook, then plug the modem back into the phone jack. This fixes the problem every time. DSL still goes up and down every time the humidity in town goes up, however. There is a serious problem with the ancient copper on the local switch that Verizon doesn't seem interested in investing the resources to fix.

Enough rambling. Why does this solution work? What is it about the analog phone that allows me to reconnect?

[dslr595148]

The second to last post in

http://forums.verizon.com/t5/High-Speed-Internet-DSL-and-Dial/Six-months-and-counting-of-DSL-problem...

I think explains it.

If you disagree, explain why...

[Lynfidel]

Yeah, thanks. Thats exactly the problem. We got a technician out finally, after two alleged 24 hour line tests that didn't result in a call back. He explained "I can only fix what I find" and told us that one of the connections coming into the house was a bit loose. He tightened that and our service came up and was fairly stable for 49 1/2 hours, then started disconnecting again. It doesn't seem to be related to other calls on the line though. The error isn't reproducable in the same way as the one you linked to, but very similar.

I get the impression that Verizon doesn't really have the technical know-how to be offering these "services".