What I Just Learned About My “Backup” Landline

After spending a decade of my life in the world of the geeks, I learned early on with several power outages that my cordless phones were useless. I then turned to my pack rat mentality and pulled out my parents old but true push button Ma Bell phone.
We kept our “land line” for that one reason, power goes out, towers go down; we can still use our phone.
Thought about a UPS but decided if storms or whatever hits the fan, I probably do not need to be sitting in front of a screen.

Sadly, the entire landline issue is much worse than most people realize.  I live in an rural area and am served by a major provider and within 25 miles of my state capital.   Due to the way phone systems have been upgraded over the years (fiber optics, etc.) a simple power outage ALSO takes out all landline service for many of us.  In my case, the back-up batteries that power the local “repeater” provide about an hour of power before we lose all communication capability. No electricity, no phones unless and until the phone company sends out a truck with a generator.  This means no ability to contact emergency services, nada.  And we live in an area that does not get a cell phone signal.  In order to have rudimentary communication via messaging or e-mail, I run a satellite modem with a generator.  In my opinion it is gross negligence that my public utility commission ( Oregon ) allows this to continue as adequate service.  Up until the  “improvements” to our phone system were implemented we always had phone service independent of whether or not we had electricity. 

Old School I/T guy here. The phone situation can be complicated. If you live in an area that has an older infrastructure there is a good possibility that you can maintain phone service during a power outage if you are setup to use a “POTS” phone line. (Plain Old Telephone System). There is a caveat. As the phone company upgrades its systems, it is transitioning the old phone infrastructure over to data lines for multiple reasons. In rural areas, this may even involve using cell towers as a communications link back to the main office. They may have a UPS for short power interruptions at the COPO but, those are only good for a few minutes & will only maintain the equipment inside of the little room not the communications link down stream to the home office. If you have one of those all in one packages from your internet/cable/phone provider you do not have a true phone line with it’s own power source as the old POTS system has.(the reason why phones used to light up even with no house power when you lifted the receiver) Hooking up a UPS will not benefit you outside of your house. Each neighborhood is on a switch that shares the data link back to the providers local distribution point (Ma Bell called this a COPO, the little shack by the road down the street). You are using a “VOIP” type setup similar to Skype minus the video. All “phone” communications are data packets carried over an internet link. A lot of TV services are beginning to be setup like this as Fiber is being rolled out the houses. Older analog POTS systems are becoming a rarity since it is more economical to transmit voice over data lines (internet) since everyone seems to have internet these days. It makes business sense but is horrendous for backup systems. Alternatively, you can ask for a phone setup for a house security alarm. It is a specific setup that is usually run off the older analog system or has built in multiple redundancy checks in place to combat issues such as power failures. No need to give a provider name. just tell ’em you rolled your own security setup that you need the alarm phone line for.

PJ I’m not saying to give up our phones or guns. I’m just saying to be ready to adapt to a changing world if needed.

I gave up my land-line years ago and only use the cell phone for my handyman business and personal life. I use it for income so it’s important. Grid down I may not do as much work as the phone is my link to doing work. But I will survive well enough as I plan ahead (putting up food, money & silver, solar panels, ham & CB radios and a lot of other things) by building up so I can survive bad times that may not let me link to the modern world like we alldo today.

Old Land-Lines are still the most reliable. Fewer and fewer people have them. When the power fails, the land-line usually still works…unless you use it on an AC-Powered phone! Get your parents’ old reliable push button out of the box in the attic and plug it in (assuming you have service).