I don’t have a landline - what would I do in an emergency?

[Ozgirl75]

I live in the countryside, not very rural but no phone signal at all, literally zero bars. I have wifi calling and also a phone line via my broadband.
This is all fine, it works and is no problem.
But the other day we had a short powercut and I had obviously no internet and no phone and it made me think, if there was ever a fire or something like a real emergency with no power, how would I call for help?
Im young and healthy (and drive) but when all landlines are gone, how will people deal with these scenarios?

Corded phones connected to a telephone exchange by copper wire will work in a power cut (for as long as the backup power to the exchange lasts).

However, old school copper telephone lines are being phased out, meaning that corded phones will no longer work without power as they'll be connected to a VOIP service which requires a data (i.e., broadband) connection to operate. This means they will not work without the fibre modem they're plugged into (plus any wireless "landline adapter" type devices) having power.

YANBU. When they design the new phone system to replace the existing ISDN, the backup solution is your mobile phone. They have decided not to power the old phone system.

While that work with most areas, there are pockets of rural areas in the UK without good mobile coverage.

We're fairly rural, the mobile signal is unreliable (although much better than it used to be) and power cuts happen regularly in winter so we've got UPS/battery backups for emergencies.

A House of Commons briefing last year said that "92% of the UK landmass had 4G coverage from at least one operator. 4% of the UK landmass had no good mobile signal at all".

The aim is for 95% to have a mobile signal by 2025, the year when BT will be switching off the analogue landline network. So it looks like a few other households will have to fork out for backups.

And I'm not sure if those figures are accurate. Ofcom has a map where you can check mobile/broadband availability for a postcode https://checker.ofcom.org.uk/ and it bears no relation to what we can actually get.

Lol 😃 I mean I assume I had ancestors in the Stone Age as well but it’s 2023 now and I’m not THAT rural, I’m just in the surrey countryside!

@lljkk

Phone plugged directly into a copper wire socket will work today but these are being phased out and I am not sure it's easy to buy a copper line anymore and if there isn't copper to the home it won't be put in

For those with a copper line you can ask to keep that functionality at least for a few years

For those without - mobile ( which may work for 999 when it doesn't for anything else ) or a home battery pack for the hub are your main options

If these don't work please raise it with your provider - there are millions of homes so even if 0.1% have problems that's a lot of problems to be resolved but you need to make your provider aware as they are not mind readers

They used to. We get quite a few power cuts and always have an analogue corded phone in our "power cut box". But that's the network that BT are switching off. And when that happens you'll either need to have a backup power supply for your router or a (charged) phone and a decent mobile signal.

The don’t anymore we had no power at all for 3 days with storm Desmond
no street lights , traffic lights or mobiles

it’s all down to cost we want everything unlimited with data for £15
look at how much we just paid for calls back in the 90’s
this is why it’s cheaper lesser service

Also if you have your home phone and b band provided by sky if there’s major power cut u would lose your home phone and b band anyway after a brief time as
they have there own equipment in the openreach exchange nothing to do with openreach and don’t pay the have it connected to the back up generator again down to cost

The widespread nature of the storms a couple of years ago did make people think / scared and there is now work to add additional resilience to the mobile phone networks - with back up power for example

Meanwhile, down here in sunny Devon....

My MIL has a landline, plus an emergency pull cord system which operates on a second landline. She doesn't have broadband, or a computer.
She's got dementia and can't really use her mobile phone any more but is still capable of using the old standard phone. I'm sure the authorities won't isolate her, will they?

When we were asked to change our electricity meter (apparently it was illegal 6 years ago - still there....) they came to fit a (unwanted) smart meter. The engineer left after 5 minutes because he couldn't get a strong enough signal on any mobile network from my house.

And this year Vodafone are, or already have, switched off their 3g network. 5g hasn't reached this area as yet.

As I , said for people with a copper line - they should be able to continue unchanged. An interim solution is being deployed that will provide the service to those who need it.

Also you can have a normal phone to plug into a fibre router that works just like it's plugged into copper and that can be protected with a battery pack in case of a power cut

But may need to tell their provider that's what they want

It's blinking hard to find links though to this - I'll keep looking

www.bt.com/help/landline/digital-voice--will-my-service-work-in-a-power-cut-

Bt info

I’m sorry but upthread whoever said most masts have battery back up. You are talking out of your arse.

The mobile networks are not facilitated to have resilience in the form of batteries, their high income generator sites may have a battery pack or independent generator but it is not the norm. They certainly don’t last 6hours.

Adaptability for generators to mast sites only works if generators are available and not deployed elsewhere to critical infrastructure (health care, civil functions). Funnily enough the sector uses pretty similar call off contractors for generators. Which is what you found in storm Arwen and Eunice.

Im a resilience analyst in the telco sector.

I did not say most masts have back up

I did say there is a big program of work to make sure that the key masts have battery or generator back up

So I hope you haven't misread

I found the following on BT website Naybe register Mil now even though it looks like they should contact

As a customer with additional needs, how can I identify this to BT to get the correct equipment required?
We'll give all customers plenty of notice when we are preparing to switch you to the new service. If you identify as having additional needs or use a telecare alarm system, please let us know by calling so that we can provide a solution that works best for your needs..

I'm worried about this too. A couple of years ago there was a big power cut in the Oxfordshire village I was living in. Mobile reception went bang too because the mast was in the power cut area.

I used my landline telephone to call the electricity supply people to report the power cut. If I hadn't been able to do that then they might not have noticed for ages (not sure how their systems work to flag this stuff) and all power and mobile signal would have been down. Not a 999 call but pretty important to be able to do this!