Phone companies phasing out copper lines. Preps will be affected.

[pudly]

The FCC changed rules this last week to allow telecoms to phase out their copper lines and migrate more to fiber and wireless. This makes sense in terms of adopting newer technology, but it also will have a negative impact on disaster resilience.

Copper wires carry an electrical charge which enable land lines to work even during blackouts. Other forms of communications do not have this feature. At best, it is up to you to maintain power for communications, assuming the other end (cell towers/cable/etc) are still working. Just another reason to make sure that power is included in your preps. Too many others who are not preppers will be left without.

 

[eldirector]

I've been without POTS for several years. My in-house phone system is on a battery, and will run for about 5 hours. Assuming the cable service is still up.

As a matter of fact, no one in my family still has POTS. We are all either VOIP or cellular.

Our communication systems are certainly getting faster, and with more bells and whistles. Less robust, though. Pretty much all of our emergency plans assume no working phones.

 

[Cameramonkey]

I've been without POTS for several years. My in-house phone system is on a battery, and will run for about 5 hours. Assuming the cable service is still up.

As a matter of fact, no one in my family still has POTS. We are all either VOIP or cellular.

Our communication systems are certainly getting faster, and with more bells and whistles. Less robust, though. Pretty much all of our emergency plans assume no working phones.

Dont count on it. Many cable repeaters are NOT on a battery, so a widespread outage should be expected.

Call me jaded, but I'm sure nowhere in those new regs include the same power requirements that the telcos were forced to adhere to for POTS. They run big battery packs and generators to maintain dial tone even in a prolonged blackout. Last count I had non-RBOCs were not required to follow that standard even though they were selling phone service.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Also, if you run VoIP at home or the office, and have a burglar/fire alarm connected to it you need to find another way for that alarm panel to communicate with central station ASAP. The internal dialers on those alarm panels are incompatible with VoIP. Most alarm companies are either unaware, or unwilling to address the failures. They APPEAR to work OK, but they fail to work frequently. And thats the kicker... its not an outright failure. It will usually work during testing, but can fail catastrophically when you need it most.

How do you know if you run VoIP? If you get your phone lines from an RBOC you are OK (old school like ATT, TDS telecom, etc) . If you have phone service from the cable company, vonage, etc. you are on VoIP. If your Uverse dial tone is delivered on the set top box you have VoIP.

If you think you are OK running a dialer on VoIP, PM me and I'll get you a copy of the presentation I gave to a group of fire officials. Its not pretty and can result in first responders being dispatched in another state when your alarm goes off.

 

[eldirector]

Dont count on it. Many cable repeaters are NOT on a battery, so a widespread outage should be expected.

I suppose it depends on the size of the power outage. The ones we have had since we moved in didn't seem to impact the cable. I still had "basic" cable TV service, still had internet, and still had phone. The power was out for the entire neighborhood.

LARGE scale power outage? Yeah, I assume phone (and everything else) will be down for the duration. Even Natural Gas will go off-line pretty quickly. They are no longer required to have NG-powered gensets at the pumping stations.

My biggest issue is technical, not physical. "Glitches" have taken me off-line more often than power outages. That said, my home office phone/internet is MUCH more reliable than the corporate network at our Indy office. The last time I lost power at home, my desk lamp went out, but I just kept working (wireless laptop and UPS for my network gear).

 

[Cameramonkey]

I suppose it depends on the size of the power outage. The ones we have had since we moved in didn't seem to impact the cable. I still had "basic" cable TV service, still had internet, and still had phone. The power was out for the entire neighborhood.

LARGE scale power outage? Yeah, I assume phone (and everything else) will be down for the duration. Even Natural Gas will go off-line pretty quickly. They are no longer required to have NG-powered gensets at the pumping stations.

My biggest issue is technical, not physical. "Glitches" have taken me off-line more often than power outages. That said, my home office phone/internet is MUCH more reliable than the corporate network at our Indy office. The last time I lost power at home, my desk lamp went out, but I just kept working (wireless laptop and UPS for my network gear).

My reference scale for "widespread" is something that takes half a county or town down, not just your neighborhood or street.

 

[bulletsmith]

The FCC changed rules this last week to allow telecoms to phase out their copper lines and migrate more to fiber and wireless. This makes sense in terms of adopting newer technology, but it also will have a negative impact on disaster resilience.

Copper wires carry an electrical charge which enable land lines to work even during blackouts. Other forms of communications do not have this feature. At best, it is up to you to maintain power for communications, assuming the other end (cell towers/cable/etc) are still working. Just another reason to make sure that power is included in your preps. Too many others who are not preppers will be left without.

Most of the phone backbone in Northwest Indiana is already fiber. Conversion started back around 2000. You have no more or less expectation of a disaster-proof phone network tomorrow than you had yesterday. If you plan on using it in a true disaster, you will likely be disappointed. Though still more reliable than the overburdened make shift VOIP that seems to be all the rage.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Most of the phone backbone in Northwest Indiana is already fiber. Conversion started back around 2000. You have no more or less expectation of a disaster-proof phone network tomorrow than you had yesterday. If you plan on using it in a true disaster, you will likely be disappointed. Though still more reliable than the overburdened make shift VOIP that seems to be all the rage.

The OP article is primarily a "last mile" issue. Almost everything from the Central office toward the core is fiber and has been for a LONG time.

 

[bulletsmith]

Understood. I guess that my underlying point was that since we are working on a system that makes it's way out to our neighborhood via fiber, that power that runs your phone has to be generated at the pedestal (more like an enclosure that is about the size of a small car). The ones I've seen use battery for backup power. Some of the bigger ones use a small generator. In systems where the existing copper was left in place to provide power to the equipment on the terminal end, outages are not really more of a risk than before. Not nearly the robust system that Ma Bell put in place way back in the 50's.

 

[Leo]

HAM Band Radio.

 

[Thor]

I hate that I can't use my DuKane rotary anymore...it's what I planned to go back to when I retired.

 

[bulletsmith]

HAM Band Radio.

+1

 

[Wire Fox]

Quite honestly, study up for a technician-class amateur radio license. You can learn some serious basic electrical skills from it, understand radios and antenna design, and pick up cheap hardware that you can use for medium-distance communication. You can pair it up with cheaper, widespread GMRS/FRS (cheap "walkie-talkies") for anyone in your immediate local group so that they won't need any special training or hardware to talk within about five miles.