Whenever I have a power outage, I also lose all of my phones - dial tone and all. If some calls me, a recording says all circuits are busy - which of course they are not. This has been happening for over a year now - during which time we have had several outages.
This loss of phones is for all my phones, some of which are cordless, and two of which are corded.
When power is restored, sure enough, phone service becomes restored some 30 or so minutes later.
My immediate neighbor does not lose his phone during the same outages. Yet his immediate neighbor does just like I do. This same random choice of working phones versus non-working phones occurs throughout this community of some 100 houses.
All I get is a song and dance from the phone company. They say they will look into it, but do not.
Well, your cordless phones have a "base station" that is probably plugged into your home electricity, so no electricity, no base station, no cordless phone. Do all of your corded phones plug into your house electrical system?
Cordless phones cannot work when the base station is unpowered.
Your cord-connected phone ought to remain in service even if the electricity fails. The phone company ought to be able to check your house circuits. Because two or more houses exhibit this behavior, the fault is probably in the phone company trunk.
In the mean time, a cell phone may meet your needs.
If it doesn't happen when you flip off your main breaker, there is a good probability that the telco has a local SLIC pedestal somewhere nearby with a failed or defective battery backup. You and your neighbors may be on circuits to that SLIC while other neighbors are still on old copper to the regular central office. It's also possible that you are all connected to this SLIC pedestal and it's battery backup is functional, but a particular frame within the SLIC ped. is not functioning properly on the battery power. Getting the telco to properly dispatch a tech to properly inspect and test that SLIC ped. will be a challenge since the CSR you get when you call typically doesn't have a clue. Calling the telco from a cell phone during an actual power failure when the problem is actively occurring might get them to test at a time when they will see that the SLIC is not reachable. Good luck.
This is as good as I would have written. However, we refer to our pair gain systems as "SLC". I don't know what either acronym stands for.
While pair gain and related equipment are not my area of "expertise", I do not believe that modern RTs (remote terminals) have battery backup sufficient to power the unit for even the first, few minutes of a grid power failure.
Virtually all RTs have a power cabinet with an external generator input (transfer switch, etc). During an EXTENDED power failure, the telco dispatches a technician towing a trailer-mounted generator behind his vehicle to the affected site. Obviously, this implies that the subscribers connected to this remote terminal are without dial tone (and probably DSL) until either the grid power is restored (common) or a generator is delivered to the affected site (rare).
That one or more neighbors MAINTAIN their phone service while others do not was explained nicely by Pete C. Another possibility is that those UNaffected neighbors subscribe to a different (physical) network. Example: I am connected by a copper pair to the Qwest Central Office ("never" an outage due to the C.O. battery and resident backup generator) while many of my neighbors are Cox Communications subscribers. These are two, physical and separate networks. One can lose power while the other stays up based on the backup capability of each.
If I flipped-off the main breaker in my electric service panel and my neighbors phone service went down, I would be amazed as that is virtually impossible.
If this is a frequent occurrence for which you have had little/no help from your telco, report your concerns to your state's regulatory commission. Such reports usually get prompt attention from the telco. Good luck!
I think this is the most likely reason. This is the only way you'll hear "All circuits are busy" In any other case you'll hear just normal ringing (except phones in the house won't ring, of course) when you call your home number.
It might be a little harder to explain why the signal does not get restored until 30 minutes after the power is back up though.
Definitely report the issue to the phone company. When the power is out is usually when you may need your phone most, so that's a serious problem and they should fix it ASAP.
D~
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Agree completely. Without more info we are however guessing.
Another possibility is that some customers have been provided with telephone service by means of 'pair gain' devices. These were often used when there were insufficient cable pairs; as communities grew ot avoided placing more cables etc. So, for example your neighbour has telephone service via the pair of copper wires, while you may have service provided by one of these power gain devices over the same pair of wires. Some of those pair gain units are powered by AC electricity?
Again your telephone service may be provided by a cable TV company. Some of those companies do not provide the same power back up of traditional telcos. and in some instances no back up power at all! Our cable TV fails during power outages for example. Sometimes noticeable but usually not a problem cos our power is off also!
Expecting any telephone that requires electricity, to work, when the power is off, is no more reasonable than expecting your electric shaver or electric toaster to work during a power outage!
BTW do you have any other AC operated devices that may be also connected to the telphone line that could busy it out during a power outage? Fax machine? Alarm system? Also any el-cheapo phones; some of which can do funny things to your regular phone line during power outages!
As I tried to say - no. Two phones are 'corded'. That is - they plug directly into bedroom wall outlets (phone outlets). So I figure they do not depend on 'house electricity' at all.
I was under the impression that those remote terminals were required to have a nominal 8 hr of battery backup capacity due to the E911 / life safety issues, with the assumption that the Telco would get a generator to the site within the 8 hrs if the power outage was expected to last longer. I know there are also some small automatic generator systems designed specifically for that type of application. As you note, the state regulators ears might perk up if they were informed about the regular lack of E911 access during power failures.
You may be right about the requirement. I'll inquire of a coworker that knows for sure.
Regardless, I am confident that many, if not all, of the RTs in our area do NOT have a battery sufficient to the task you list: 8 hours would require a large battery, indeed.
Virtually all of the "nodes" in Omaha's broadband "experiment" (unique "orphan" system) have a built-in genset and are connected to natural gas in most cases, propane tank(s) in a few others. The RTs outside our broadband "footprint" are not so equipped.
It still amazes me when I encounter a household with NO line-powered (corded) telephones. I inform them that it is prudent to have at least ONE such phone on hand in the event of a power failure.
More and more folks are depending solely on cordless telephony and wireless (cell) phones. I am still unconvinced that the "cell" phone network(s) is AS reliable as the public switched (wired) network, much less MORE reliable, particularly in the aftermath of a genuine disaster.
As wireless telephony continues to proliferate, is capacity is increased. However, a disaster is hopefully confined to a small(er) area. In such an event, the few "cell" sites serving that area would likely be overwhelmed. Remember: Such service is wireless ONLY until it reaches the nearest tower, where it rides on land lines and the public switched network.
I just went thru the exercise of throwing my main power breaker to see if I lose all dial tones that way. And I do not. Unlike with a true power outage during which I lose all dial tones, whether the phone is cordless (portable with a base) or corded (connected to the wall), with the main breaker thrown I only lose dial tones for the cordless phones. That is as it should be.
So I still do not know why I and some of my neighbors (but not all) lose all dial tones during a true power outage.
- It still amazes me when I encounter a household with NO line-powered (corded) telephones.
While I understand your amazment, have you tempered that with the extra cost for those of us who subscribe to the "all-in-one" services of a cable company?
I don't believe that I can have a line-powered phone unless I re- subscribe with my telco and get a separate number. Since my modem is dependent on power, I loose all of my phones, corded or not, during a power outage. I would need to pay the full cost of a residential phone service for the rare occasions when the power goes out.
I'm already paying for the cable company's phone service and a couple of cell phones (which can be charged up/powered by my car or portable jumpstart unit) so I'm not sure that paying for a line-powered backup system makes economic sense.
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