Mains failure

Thanks for that. To my unanswered question 2, would it be as simple as replacing the existing exchange with a cabinet and linking that cabinet to the data centre wherever it is located?

Pretty much. Or they may intercept the cables at the pole or in the street. Or replace them altogether with a 5G or wide area wifi connection

Not sure how much aluminium there is in the network. Drop wires are easily replaced.

Owain

Scott brought next idea :

Yep, you could buy separately a matching plastic pattress, which formed a shallow surface box for the cable behind.

Ours no longer provides a POTS service over the copper pairs even when the copper pairs are still there to the house with the VDSL2 service.

I'd have to say I can't remember the last time I saw anything with the centre -Ve on a DC barrel connector? Not saying there aren't any, I've just not seen any (in the many many PSU's I have here). There are a few with AC outputs.

Cheers, T i m

As usual with powerbanks they lie about the capacity. It's likely to have an 8800mAh battery inside but that's measured at the 3.6V lithium cell voltage. It's not 12V 8.8Ah it's 3.6V 8.8Ah ie 32Wh - as much battery as an iPad in other words. There is actually a picture showing 4x 18650 8.15Wh cells. That's a big torch, nothing more.

That's roughly an e-bike battery. The other problem with lithium cells is they don't like being stored at maximum voltage, which is where they would be in a UPS on charge most of the time. Lead acid on the other hand much prefers to be at top of charge voltage.

What I'm looking for is a lead acid version of these 12v units. Thus far I came to the conclusion that it would be possible to build one using a 'solar charge controller' which has roughly the right functionality (monitors battery voltage, cuts off the load if it gets too low; charges from an intermittent supply called 'the sun' and handles when it goes away). But it would be nice to have that packaged up into a nice unit with all the management stuff (overtemperature etc) sorted out.

'Cigar lighter socket' is a standard, although not a very pleasant one. Car-to-whatever cables aren't uncommon. Although for this kind of gear (routers and such), some barrel jack cables with universal plugs would probably do it.

Theo

The value of the land/buildings is no concern of theirs, they haven't owned them for two decades

BT meet the costs to /run/ them - the odd £1 billion or so of costs under operating leases (with rent inflation baked in) and business rates.

I think it was more a EU directive with UK's agreement, assuming the UK had a veto in such minor directives.

I've often wondered how Apple got away with their different system. I was hoping there would be some sanction, like an increased import tariff.

Because there was no such Directive. There was a voluntary agreement with the EU by some makers to adopt micro USB.

Well, of course! We were part of the EU then. But I don't think the manufacturers would have taken much notice if a single country suggested standardisation - my point was that it was something only a market the size of the EU could demand.

Have they standardised on USBC now?

my mobile won't work indoors. I need to use wifi calling, but if the mains fails that goes, too. I can lean out of an upstairs though to get a signal

- just. But that's no good for incoming calls.

They require mains for full functionality but will work for long enough without it to phone in a message to the control centre to the effect that local mains power has failed - please send help. The user can override the callout if they can get to the phone to do so.

The default assumption is that loss of mains power for frail elderly living alone is an emergency unless they say otherwise.

It is in essence a handsfree fairly loud speaker phone with a big red emergency button on. The pendant is a little bit clunky but acceptable.

Described in more detail here - it comes with call monitoring and first responders as well. Anything too tricky and they call 999 and stay with the patient until qualified medical help arrives.

That's disingenuous. They pay rent on them and the rent will depend in part on the asset value and potential for other uses. I assume they also pay rates, based on the rateable value.

Convert them to have a cabinet.

Before:

In our village there is a cabinet straight across the road from the exchange.

The fibre to the cabinets doesn't need to go to the same exchanges that the copper does, that'll let them reduce the overall number of exchange buildings they need.

But if it is an existing copper 'exchange only' line (no cabinet) would it be a case of installing a cabinet presumably at the existing exchange to aggregate these lines? Or would all the exchange only subscribers be updated to FTTP?

But BT still lease them back, and after 2031 those leases will be up for renegotiation.

The more they can decide they don't need by then, the better.

Owain