"we can't use the phone".....

[twocvbloke]

Okay, we had a short powercut this evening, and the mother and I got onto the subject of phones being operational, and she said "we can't use the phone now, can we?", and I just sat there and looked at her 'til she realised that there's a green thing (GPO 746 Mk1) sat there that isn't plugged into the mains power....

Is it getting to the point where people with plain telephones think that they also lose power the moment the mains goes off? I know phone exchanges these days have a power backup of some description (battery, generator, dedicated power lines, etc.), so they don't go off immediately, but, the thought that they go off when the lights go out seems to be be getting more common...

[Greg G.]

This is interesting.  It's the opposite of the blurbs on some vintage phone ads that say the phone will work even when the power goes out.  Not necessarily, not anymore.  If it's run through a phone modem, the darn thing goes down even if it's just the internet connection that goes down! 

[twocvbloke]

Well, for us "backwards brits", the phones do stay on during such powercuts as we don't rely on VOIP stuff, yet, and I managed to get the internet running through a bank of batteries and a 12vDC-to-230vAC inverter, cos I haven't got a UPS, so even the ADSL was still up and running, so, yeah, the phones aren't a goner if there's no mains power, just add a UPS (or a heath robinson backup thing like mine!!)...

The mother loves the Motorola cordless though, and yes that was dead while the lights were out, but the other two phones on the line were fine (well the 746 doesn't seem to want to dial out, but I think that's just cos I never serviced the dial), so there's nothing to worry about...

Heck, the Uncles' have more power cuts than we do, and they're always using their phone, which is proof positive of the phonelines being independently powered...