Considering the low power consumption of your cable phone router, a $75 (if that) UPS would keep it running for at least as long as the cable companies backup power for their line gear. I have a fairly large UPS (1420VA) that happily powers my cable modem, router, network switch and web/mail/vru/storage server for over an hour and a half. I also have two generators that I can bring online if needed.
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You don't need to know. It is now clearly the telco's problem. If they are unwilling to deal with it, you can complain to whatever regulatory agency that oversees telephone companies in your state. You could even tell them that you couldn't dial 911 during the last outage (of course you didn't try, but don't mention that).
Well, if he didn't have a dial tone, he wouldn't have been able to even if he did try...
Obviously there's a common supply somewhere under some of these outage conditions that is taking the telco's supply, too. Whether that would be a regulatory violation is doubtful in my mind, but guess could always ask his State authority...
When it comes to the ability to reach E911 or other emergency services, there may well be a regulatory violation. Recall the E911 issue came up with the various VoIP providers i.e. Vonage and created quite a stink until they sorted it out.
Certainly it _might_, but there's no way they can regulate 100% reliability. Only if there is something so fundamentally flawed in their system that is fixable would there be a possibility of regulatory violation. That is possible, of course, but wouldn't be my first choice of likely outcomes... :)
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Nobody is talking about 100% reliability. But power failures are not uncommon and can be planned for. If there was no regulatory requirement for the phone network to work during a power outage, a lot of telco's would save money and not bother with all the batteries and backup generators that they have.
I bet that these days, even "homeland security" would have something to say about a phone system that fails during a power outage.
OP/Jethro: what state are you in?
No, but it depends on what the root cause of this outage is and the frequency vs cost of fixing the problem (and, of course, what any actual regulation is in the State wherein OP resides)...
My first bet of any outcome will be the telco is within the letter of any pertinent regulation...
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The main point is that mentioning the E911 issue to the Telco might perk their ears up enough that they actually dispatch a tech to investigate the problem.
That _is_ a possibility unless they already know what is the cause of why they lose power in that section (which I would also suspect to be the case at least in Engineering although a complaint-taker robot certainly won't know nor have any such information available)...
But, if it's such a frequent event as to be a problem for OP, that would certainly be at least one avenue to pursue.
We're on a rural line and phone hangs in there most of the time when power is out, but sometimes it just happens that whatever takes the power takes 'em both. Once in a while it's the other way 'round, too. Sh^htuff happens and to have it otherwise implies the 100% reliability problem.
So it returns to a question of "how often and why" and whether that is or isn't up to the standards of the particular State regulatory body. And again, my guess would be the telco makes pretty sure to ensure that. But again, never hurts to use the club if it's a problem, just don't be overly optimistic it will cause a change. :)
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Delaware!
No solution for you, jut a story.
When a storm knocked a small telephone pole down, so that they cable for our 109 houses went into the stream, the phone company came out I think but didn't tell me, though I had called.
I should say that all the phones were working fine, even with the wire under water when it rained.
When I called again a couple months later, after that I could see where the electric company had come out and marked wires, to say they weren't theirs or something.
It took 2 1/2 years before they replaced the pole.
I had called a total of 4 times.
I wouldn't have kept calling them if they had acknowledged any of my calls and told me it could take years. I could live with that. The phone worked fine, although I did suspect that my low dial-up speeds were because of it, but I'm convinced now that they weren't.
- Considering the low power consumption of your cable phone router, a $75
- (if that) UPS would keep it running for at least as long as the cable
- companies backup power for their line gear.
Very true, but what does that have to do with JR's amazement when he encounters "a household with NO line-powered (corded) telephones"?
I have to tell you - your story hit my funny bone. God, I sure hope my problem doesn't descend to anything like yours. In any case, I am thinking of changing phone service to cable. I just don't know how that would adapt to my present Verizon system, or if it would do me any good.
Generally, the phone companies are not interested in fixing anything unless service is actually out or there is some hazard for which they could get sued. I have reported trees that had fallen over and were held up by nothing more than the phone cable. They told me that they would not do anything unless it came down.
It's a solution for your cable based phones and others cordless phones.
If they were notified of the danger, and the tree fell and struck someone, because the wires could no longer hold the tree up. I bet a good lawyer would make a few bucks off it.
The cable companies do have backup power. The line power supplies have battery backup and for extended outages they will bring out a small Honda generator and chain it at the base of the pole. I've never lost my cable feed here during a power failure.
Sorry, my experience is different. During Hurricane Floyd in Sept. 1999, we lost power for 72 hours. I hooked up my 5500 watt generator and everything in the house worked... except the cable TV (TWC). During the last two days, we were watching movies on VHS and DVD. The cable substation is about 10 miles from me. The cable TV, nor the cable broadband, did not come back on until the electric power came back on. We did not have VoIP, but the telephone worked. It is one reason why I don't want VoIP.
In the past, I have had to call them to come out and put more gas in the generator. :) Now they have automatic NG generators permanently installed.
My longest power outage was about 39 hours, caused by an ice storm. When the batteries on the cable system ran down I lost my cable. I gave them a call and they brought a generator out for the cable plant. I did have to call them a couple of times when it ran out of gas. When they started offering phone service, they installed automatic NG generators to prevent outages. BTW, I am on Cox cable.
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