Will mobile phones have internet access during any planned blackouts?

[zippalippa]

For the purposes of this post let's just imagine staggered blackouts go ahead this winter. Please don't reply with 'well it won't happen' because I'm just doing a planning exercise in my head and I find it interesting to think things through!

For people working from home, usually a laptop battery can last a few hours and you can use your mobile phone as a hotspot for the internet so everything carries on as normal. But if the planned blackouts go ahead do the mobile masts cut out as well? Or do they have backup batteries so 3g/4g would still work?

I have tried googling but can't find anything pertaining to pre planned blackouts, only storms etc which often damage the masts anyway.

For our area we have 6 hours of cuts falling during one work day so it really would be a bit of a pain for home workers. Travelling to the nearest office wouldn't be much help as everyone will have the same idea and a lot of businesses have downsized so there aren't enough hot desks to serve everyone.

@Atmywitsend29 if the net and data centres are down he may struggle anyway with or without home power. He should look at the battery options - diesel gennies not the best solution really, he could keep them charged and ready to go. Or even if he installed solar and battery packs for the property that could work too

What about people running life saving equipment etc

I can imagine some people driving to a place with a signal.

We are currently being hit quite hard with power outages, going off about 6 hrs a day in 3 time slots.

Only once have I not had any mobile phone signal during an outage, as the towers all have back up batteries. What does happen though, is that if I'm on a phone call during the switch off time, quite a lot of the time, the call will drop and we need to phone the person again. So I'm thinking that is happening during the switch over. Which is usually automatic but it does seem to be affecting calls at that particular time.

For those working from home, maybe looking at a UPS/inverter/generator might be an idea. Ups is the cheapest of them all and not complicated to use.

I have used Hotspot from my mobile to a laptop running off battery, but it's not a preferable option as then you use phone data and not wifi, and here data is quite pricy. Imo it's better to run the router via UPS.

The only problem with being out 3 x day is that the ups isn't getting enough time to fully charge again before the next time it had to kick in.

Ok so during Arwen, we had no power for over a week. Fair enough these outages are only 3 hours but we found a massive flaw - no power equalled no mobiles but also no BT landlines as its that rubbish Digital Voice. We live rurally. God forbid we need emergency services as we will have no means of communication.

With these rollig power cuts - will gas supplies be cut off at the same time as electricity supplies, or will there be a different timetable altogther for gas?

@isthismylifenow I’m guessing you live the same place as me! We have an inverter which we leave turned on so we don’t drop calls at all when the power cuts. We still have mobile signal but I wouldn’t rely on it for anything other than emergencies, using it to hotspot will drain your phone battery and data. Our work has just bought us all additional external battery packs for our laptops.

We are in about our 4th month of having no power for 3-6 hours a day, you do get used to it.

Also a reminder to those talking about driving anywhere, the traffic lights won’t work without power either and your office won’t have power unless they have generators.

I think we do ☺️

I don't know why my calls drop, maybe it's the V network I'm on. As I'm always connected up via the UPS but that doesn't affect the phone calls. The signal is fine though, just at the switch over at the mast I I'm assuming is when I'm noticing the dropped calls.

Just wish I could find a work around for my hairdryer and straighter though as the 6 to 8am slot is the pits.

P and S has 4 blackouts but T only has 2, most have 3

Gas won't be cut off because of the safety issues of switching it back on, gas workers have to check your meter and pipes after it has been off for leaks. Gas combi boilers won't work anyway without electric

Gas combi boilers won't work but will my gas hob still work?
I'm guessing yes but not sure.

@NiteGarden I think gas hobs are generally ok with a match but gas ovens may not work because of the electric gas safety cut off thing, probably best checking sometime beforehand by switching of the oven electric, when the clocks change is probably a good time as the clock will need changing anyway. We had an ancient gas cooker that wasn't plugged in but all the newer ones are and have the additional safety features.

Even if you have a fully charged laptop and can use your phone as a wi fi hotspot, will you still be able to access your organisation’s systems if there is no power keeping the servers going ?

Well your boiler won't be working if there's no electricity. And the ignition on a gas cooker won't work either.

We have a double oven. The bottom one will not light with a match, but the top grill/oven does. Our old one would, we discovered this during the last big storm.

Just putting it out there in case it helps someone else.

@Atmywitsend29 - I am from South Africa originally and we have had power blackouts for years. There are ways around it and you can still work. You can either get a generator or a very large battery pack designed to keep your computer, printer etc working. The only problem is there might be a shortage of equipment if it becomes imminent that blackouts will go ahead. In South Africa people use gas heaters, gas cookers, battery powered lights and some even have generators that run on diesel.

It’s worth checking how much of the area around you is in the same power block. My village is in one block, but a couple of miles in any direction takes me to different blocks. It’s not like the whole country is split into 26 enormous blocks. Which means that when my house gets a power outage, many of my local friends - and cafes/pubs etc - won’t be. So if you can work on a laptop, you may be able to plan some swaps with friends.

@isthismylifenow the inverter is your friend again for your hairdryer. I have a low wattage travel hairdryer which I can plug straight into the inverter. I’m on the 6am till 830am slot for the next few days so I’ll be having bad morning blow dries this week.

This is a great point, good to know

I only have a UPS and it's not powerful enough for these appliances unfortunately .

I have to make do either drying it in the evening and then try not to move all night. Thank goodness I wfh some days so can whip away to sort out the mop on top when we are back on.

Some one I know bought some rechargable straighteners from Aus, I swear I need to find these.... (and start a side hustle selling them 😊)

@JustOrderADoor thank you for the links. That ESSEC document says it was revised November 2019, so were power cuts predicted then?

I’m in SA with power cuts and our mobile data still goes. Charge your laptop and phone and spare power pack and it’s fine.

you know when the outages will be so you plan accordingly. Offices have generators houses and batteries. Honestly most of the time you go about your day as normal. Yea

What would people recommend getting in for power cuts? Candles?! I remember power cuts in Northern Ireland when I was a child, always brings back memories of chaos.
I am also thinking rechargeable and non-rechargeable batteries for radio and torches
..: what else?

Buy rechargable lights rather than candles. They work out cheaper in the long run and give better light. And you can carry them room to room more safely.

If people are looking for ways round the blackouts, eg buying battery packs and charging them up, or travelling to areas not scheduled for blackouts, aren't we just exacerbating the issue by using more energy in planning