Fibre optic telephones, and power cuts?

[ericmark]

The old 50 volt telephone had no requirement for power from any other source. We had railway huts with a telephone, but no 230 volt power, OK today no longer used, we have a repeater and PMR radios, but we have for many years, relied on the telephone to work, even with a power cut.

One friend tells me his fibre telephone has a back-up battery, but the cabinet it comes from does not, so with an area power failure, he has no telephone, his only option is to drive around 2 miles to where he has a mobile signal.

I do remember the floods in Prestatyn, and how the telephone exchange failed, and RAYNET provided the links, so the other emergency services could know where they were required, but these were rare, and today there are far fewer radio hams, so not sure if that could be done any more.

My own RAYNET disbanded some 10 years ago, and I no longer have a ruck sack with all my radio gear, ready to be grabbed at a moment's notice, to respond to an event like Prestatyn, we as a group relied on donations and practice with events like cycle events, fun runs etc, to both train us, and pay for equipment, the mobile phone and cheap PMR466 radios, have resulted in these events doing their own communications, so we now rely on our phones.

So phones which stop working in high winds, either due to mast damage, or lost of mains electric power, worries me.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

My own RAYNET disbanded some 10 years ago, and I no longer have a ruck sack with all my radio gear, ready to be grabbed at a moment's notice, to respond to an event like Prestatyn, we as a group relied on donations and practice with events like cycle events, fun runs etc, to both train us, and pay for equipment, the mobile phone and cheap PMR466 radios, have resulted in these events doing their own communications, so we now rely on our phones.

So phones which stop working in high winds, either due to mast damage, or lost of mains electric power, worries me.

Well, my equipment is always ready, always set up as it has been for decades. I half remember something mentioned in the licence years ago, about it being a condition of the licence, that you could make you, and your station available, in times of emergency.

 

[aveatry]

As far as I know with the switch over from copper to fibre for VOI if the power gos then - no landline. Stupid idea if you ask me we are opening ourselves to an infrastructure attack.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

As far as I know with the switch over from copper to fibre for VOI if the power gos then - no landline. Stupid idea if you ask me we are opening ourselves to an infrastructure attack.

If the cabinet is has backup power, along with the router and phone etc. then it will still work. If the cabinet has no backup, as in the case Eric mentioned, then it will not. All rather concerning!

 

[Tigercubrider]

Most cabinets don’t have power backups.

Many workplaces have discovered that an IT failure knocks out telephones.
When POT (plain old telephones) worked, you could email or phone if one part of the structure went down.
Now, both are reliant on both the local hub/modem and all the powered units back to the exchange.

I don’t know what phone mast power backup exists. But in flooding situations, hope it’s on a hill

 

[foxhole]

Keep a carrier pigeon handy

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Keep a carrier pigeon handy

Or flags - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_semaphore

 

[securespark]

Keep a carrier pigeon handy

 

[FrodoOne]

The old 50 volt telephone had no requirement for power from any other source. We had railway huts with a telephone, but no 230 volt power, OK today no longer used, we have a repeater and PMR radios, but we have for many years, relied on the telephone to work, even with a power cut.

Even before CB (Common Battery) 'phones
"we" had "Local Battery" 'phones.

 

[ericmark]

I still remember the wind up handle to make the bell work, still in use when I was on the Falklands, however useless in high winds.