Bye bye landlines? Now how do we connect when there’s no power?

Jonnie PekelnyContributor - October 17, 2022

Hi, everyone. I posted this on the Discord discussion but since I know that some people aren’t on that I’m also posting a duplicate question here. My question is about landlines (or more appropriately their alternatives in an emergency.) I LOVE my landline. First, because I talk a lot on the phone and my cordless phone has great sound and is comfortable all around. But also because in a power outage I’ll have connectivity — via a corded phone I have stashed for that purpose. But now it seems like the day is finally coming when the major phone companies will discontinue their copper wire services. What to do? I know that VOIP is available in most areas. I’m not really optimistic that the sound or reliability will be as good as my land line. But the other thing is that VOIP will go down if the power goes down. Even battery backups last only something like 12 hours. Not good in an extended power outage. I’m wondering what folks are thinking in terms of connectivity with remote loved ones or other things we might need to use a phone for if there is no power. I do have a cell phone, but reception in my house is not great.

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In a recent 3 day power shutdown, our cell phones worked fine…..

 

Hikermor – Glad you were able to retain cell service!

Jonnie Pekelny – All you can do is plan BEFORE stuff happens on where you will meet up and who the out-of-state contact will be for people to check in and report they are safe.   It is really important to communicate this specific information to your friends and family, even if they are ignoring you.    Hopefully in an emergency, they may remember something.   One can only hope. Landlines are dinosaurs.     

During the 2011 Southwest Blackout (September 8, 2011, 3:38 pm) which affected parts of southern California and parts of Mexico and Arizona, people panicked and everyone tried to use cell phones and landlines at the same time.    Ooops…    There was zero communication between civilians, and even first responders.    It was ugly.

 

Landlines are only dinosaurs because people have decided they are. I think it’s really lovely technology, even if old. But more to the point… my loved ones are scattered all over the place. A good chunk is in my local area, but others are out of state or out of the country. It would be hard to get all of them to pull together in an emergency. And my mom lives nearby but at this point is quite disabled and has trouble managing daily activities. It’s very difficult to get her to do any emergency planning — I’ve tried.

 

Great job trying to help her prepare!

If she does live nearby, she might be susceptible to the same power outage that you might experience. So that’s something to be aware of if you are working on your communication resources but then she can’t receive or call you. You’ll have to get up and running and then do the same for her too.

 

As was shown after major storms in the north of England last year, when the power lines to the cell phone towers fail the cell phone signal fails as well.

 

I wonder how many towers have backup generators and how long they can last for. I don’ think a call to my phone provider would give me any answers though.

 

Any thoughts on using satellite messaging for this situation, such as Garmin Inreach? A $10/month subscription gets you a very disaster-resistant messaging system for when the cell towers stop working.

 

In our last few power outages, our landline didn’t work.  Cell phone here is pretty useless without wifi, but with luck I can find a bar or two if I walk around the property.  In the ice storm a couple of years ago, the cell phone was down for three days. The landline was out for the duration.

The phone tech was out to install a new router this spring and we asked about the land line.  He said it’s all tied in now with the modem. ???  He said we could get a new modem with battery backup that would give us about 6 hours of land line access.

Had to straighten out a different problem with the phone company yesterday and scheduled install of the battery backup modem.  Seems kind of  weird setup, but oh well. We’ll ask the tech if the battery can be recharged during an outage.

We are not dependent on phones to “connect with friends and family” and rarely use the phone, so it hasn’t been much of  a priority.  For an 8 day outage, it was just an annoyance, and once we could get into town, we were able to get a signal on the cell.  But I guess six hours of landline time would at least be good if we had an emergency at the outset of the outage.

 

Sounds like you no longer have a landline, but a VOIP — voice over internet protocol. They look like traditional phones at first blush. You can keep using the same phones you used for your land line, but it all actually works over the internet. And yes, internet down = VOIP line down, unless there’s some other backup strategy.

 

Ah, thanks.  Seems pretty advanced for a little country phone co-op!

 

Maybe we should get cb radios in our cars.