VVM's Telephone Line Weather Report
Killeen Connect Avg.: Temple Connect Avg.:
Connection Analysis Tabular Data   Updated Pie Chart  Purpose  Disconnections

Severe Weather Alert: Storms approaching Central Texas that may impair connection quality as well as create a threat to computer and modem equipment.   Make sure all electronic equipment is completely unplugged from power outlets and telephone line outlets.

Disconnection Advisory:  Heavy precipitation often has a negative impact on telephone line quality.  This is due to the fact that although most telephone cables throughout the area are housed in water-tight compartments, there are some areas that have older cable segments that have cracked cable sheaths.  There are also equipment boxes scattered throughout the area that are not 100% water-tight and can be affected with heavy rain.  This normally results in hissing or static on your line which although is annoying to the human ear, is deadly to a modem connection.  VVM' modem banks are all digital and not affected by precipitation; however, this is not the case for the entire telephone network.  Be prepared to experience an increasing chance of disconnections or other connection related problems during heavy rains or extreme weather.

What is the Purpose of This Page?

The collection of wires and equipment that has been serving our telephone needs for decades is known as the Public Switched Telephone Network  This network began nearly a century ago and had been continuously expanded and improved as the years have passed.  Telephone companies such as SouthWestern Bell in Temple and Sprint Centel in Killeen have been working furiously over the past few months to update their lines and equipment in the Central Texas area to handle the staggering growth of the Internet.

The telephone system as it was originally designed never anticipated the use of high speed modems and telephone line usage that is a result of Internet use.  The original average length per telephone call was only a few minutes, now that average has skyrocketed in to the hours range.

To compensate for this unprecedented growth in telephone usage, the telephone companies have had to come up with some pretty clever ways to utilize what is already in place more efficiently as well as expand.  The telephone companies can only expand so fast and the rate of Internet growth is simply so phenomenal that the telephone companies can't possibly keep up with the usage without some clever engineering.

This enhancement of the existing telephone network is done in part by compression, re-routing and other technical methods for getting more phone calls over the same number of lines and equipment.  The consequence of this is that when the load incurred by Internet users exceeds a certain level, the system begins to strain somewhat under the intense pressure.  When this occurs, the area is affected in what seems to be almost a random fashion In reality there are precise electrical principles that can account for phone lines connect speed fluctuations, etc..

As the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) becomes more complicated it begins to rival the complexity of Weather Patterns.  Meteorology and telephony begins to look a lot alike.

Therefore, what VVM is going to attempt to do on this page and subsequent pages is to provide a PSTN Weather Report system.  By using our diagnostic equipment we can effectively measure the equivalent of Temperature and Pressure for telephone networks (i.e. Baud Rates and Noise Levels).  In addition we will provide a daily average connect speed for the Killeen and Temple areas, by running a program that sums up all the connect rates in Killeen and Temple for our customers and averages it by city.

This way general trends in the load that is being placed on the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) can be tracked and we can see if the area as a whole is getting lower and lower connect rates.  This can at least help the customer to isolate if his or her connection problems are due to wiring in his house or it is a Global telephone network problem.

This analysis will by no means be a scientific one and will have a wide margin of error initially.  We hope to be able to even reach the point where we can compare data from past months to make predications on how telephone line quality may be in the days to come.   Sort of like a PSTN Weather Forecast.

This, of course, is highly ambitious and since the telephone network is constantly being updated and worked on by the telephone companies our predictions may have little correspondence to reality; however it at least may give the customer some starting points when dealing with connection problems. 

Notice: The information on this page has not been scientifically analyzed and displayed using sophisticated Statistical algorithms, merely a simple averaging.     Also, as of this moment, we are not filtering by modem type.  For example users who have 14.4 Modems only will clearly bring down the average as well as 56K modems will bring it up.

A common question that comes up is why doesn't everybody connect at the same rate.   Why is there such a wide disparity in connect rates throughout the Central Texas area?  The answer is due to the fact that the telephone network is not homogenous (i.e. the characteristics are not uniform throughout).  This leads to a variation of phone line quality from one point within the dialing area to another.  For more information on modems, telephones and connect speeds see our faq at http://www.vvm.com/vvmonly/faq/speed.htm.  

Here is today's report for:
Killeen:  Average Connect was :
Temple: Average Connect Rate was :

Tabular Data
(This table is updated every 15 minutes)

(Note: The 56,000 connections you see are ISDN users who dial in on the same equipment as regular users but using ISDN modems)
(The FCC restricts analog callers to achieve speeds over 53.3K)

Temple Percentage Pie Chart of Speeds
(a breakdown by percentage of connect rates in Temple)

Killeen Percentage Pie Chart of Speeds
(a breakdown by percentage of connect rates in Killeen)

Note: Both Temple and Killeen have identical equipment and lines.  We have an OC-12 Fiber link entering the premises on both locations.    One is provided by Sprint Centel and the other SouthWestern Bell.   We have identical modem equipment in both cities.  The reason that Killeen is a bit higher than Temple on the average is mostly due to the fact that the Temple dialing area is spread out over a wider geographic location (i.e. Belton, Temple, Salado); whereas most customers dialing into Killeen live nearer to Telephone Company Central Offices.

Notice: The information on this page has not been scientifically analyzed and displayed using sophisticated Statistical algorithms, merely a simple averaging.     Also, as of this moment, we are not filtering by modem type.  For example users who have 14.4 Modems only will clearly bring down the average as well as 56K modems will bring it up.

In the future we hope to separate these charts by modulation type so as to not incur errors.

Please be aware that this is just a preliminary report that we may or may not continue depending upon if it is nor is not of any value to our customers.  Your comments and/or questions are welcome at feedback@vvm.com   

Thank You.