No power, no telephone, not even 999

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Extracted from https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-59564480

"There was no way of getting hold of anybody," says 74-year-old Jim Bownass, who lives in the small village of Crosthwaite, near Kendal, in the Lake District.

When Storm Arwen took out his electricity on 26 November he was left with "no communication with the outside world whatsoever". No way of calling for an ambulance, no way of asking for less urgent help and no way of talking to his power company.

His 84-year-old neighbour was in the same quandary: "Her phone is exactly the same as mine, one of the new digital phones from BT, and nothing worked."

Under the old landline system - the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) - home phones still function in a power cut (unless the lines themselves come down) because the exchange has back-up power which feeds to the phone through the line itself.

But this system is being switched off in 2025 and BT Openreach, which manages the UK's phone and internet network, has already begun moving people over to Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) connections, which work through broadband.

Mr Bownass's phone line had worked "perfectly" for the 50 years he has lived in his house, he says, but he switched to VOIP three months ago. The power cut knocked out his landline for a week.

BT, and the industry regulator Ofcom, say PSTN equipment is becoming harder and more expensive to maintain and new digital technology is needed to secure the future of our phone services.

But Storm Arwen has highlighted a number of problems with the new technology, and its rollout.
 
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Remarkably bad, but foreseeable. My home is not yet VOIP so I have a couple of dumb phones that work in power cuts

In some parts of the world, satellite comms can be rented to provide access to isolated communities, including, in the UK, some Lottery outlets.

UK utility services have had PMR for years for resilience in major incidents, since internet and cellphones are not reliable services.

I have a feeling that the railways and fire service, for example, will continue to have access using a different network.

I wonder if Kendal has any working mobile phones.
 
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In some parts of the world, satellite comms can be rented to provide access to isolated communities.

They need power to operate. A standby power supply would be needed and that would require batteries to operate.

UK utility services have had PMR for years for resilience in major incidents.

Which are very effective within minutes of the incident happening and the logistics are in place to keep the PMR ( Private Mobile Radio ) batteries charged.
 
They need power to operate. A standby power supply would be needed and that would require batteries to operate.

Typically a truck or cabin for a local hub. With a small generator and/or solar panels. I know someone in Australia that rents satellite kit to prospectors and expeditions.

In UK small communities often have a small BT cabin crammed with batteries. I bet Kendal has, or had, one, with no signage.
 
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Once again (poor old) BT gets in the neck for an Ofcom decision.

Early '90's BT was going to fibre up the country - Stopped by Ofcom as Ofcom saw it as 'Anti- Competitive". Now BT gets in the neck 'cause the country is not Fibreing up quick enough - we lost what 25 years at least. And one of the design features from BT in the '90's was to stream TV down the fibre so the RF spectrum used then and now for TV broadcast and entertainment purposes could be used for Scientific, Business, Medical and Industrial purposes.

Now we see another Ofcom Decision hitting BT rather than all the network operators - Virgin comm's has also been going over to VOIP for some time.
 
In UK small communities often have a small BT cabin crammed with batteries. I bet Kendal has, or had, one, with no signage.

There probable is a local cabinet from where the VoIP ( ADSL ) signal will be applied to the copper pairs to the houses.

But when the house has no supply available to power the broadband modem/router then there is no way the ADSL signal can be converted into audio for the telephone earpiece
 
Now we see another Ofcom Decision hitting BT rather than all the network operators

I've heard comments from retired telecoms people that the decision was made by operators and OfCom had no effective way to prevent it happening so accepted it by default.
 
BT, and the industry regulator Ofcom, say PSTN equipment is becoming harder and more expensive to maintain and new digital technology is needed to secure the future of our phone services.

Not a problem here, plenty of battery power and a number of VHF, HF radios to fall back upon..
 
today I was contacted by a telecomms company, converting a line to VOIP who also said

"

How can I make emergency calls if there's service disruption?
If you rely on your landline for accessibility needs or don’t have a mobile to make an emergency call we’ll provide you with an emergency back up line so you’re always able to call emergency services.
 
today I was contacted by a telecomms company, converting a line to VOIP who also said

"

How can I make emergency calls if there's service disruption?
If you rely on your landline for accessibility needs or don’t have a mobile to make an emergency call we’ll provide you with an emergency back up line so you’re always able to call emergency services.

BT was recently taken to task over this potential for failure - last I heard they were still thinking about how emergency calls could be made, during a power outage, with a router not working. The solution may be battery backed routers in the home.
 
if it is a local power failure in your house, you could use a battery or UPS to supply the router (the power load is very low)

i suspect street cabinets will have to be given some kind of standby supply.
 
I've heard comments from retired telecoms people that the decision was made by operators and OfCom had no effective way to prevent it happening so accepted it by default.
At the time I was on part of the development staff - we were told by management the process was halted because OfCom deemed it anti competitive.
 
if it is a local power failure in your house, you could use a battery or UPS to supply the router (the power load is very low)

Around 10w, depending on it's work level. A 6amp hour battery might last 5 hours, which cuts it fine for a typical outage of 4 hours.
 
Many routers use a 12v wallwort/PSU so could easily be replaced by a battery.

Although you would need to arrange this and order your bits n pieces to do this online - before the power cut :)
 

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