If the phone networks failed....?

[aimee309]

So the o2 outage was a small taste of how communications might be if the networks failed albeit phone was still available. How would you communicate if all the phone networks went down?

Beacon? I have no idea we were lost on Thursday 😵

I'm afraid I didn't even notice and I am on an O2 network. I was working on a PC at home and as calls were working I had phone calls fine, even if I they didn't, I a have a home line I can (and often do) use.

So to answer your queston, if the phone network is down, I use email on my pc and/ or my home / work landline to contact people. That is enough for emergencies and everything else can usually wait until I am near a PC or landline.

Now if the whole internet were down, that would probably be different !

I'd find it hilarious watching people have a breakdown because there is no network.

I sent dh a text asking what time he would be home for dinner so I could stick it in the oven for 2hrs. He didn't reply. He often doesn't so I assumed he was working/missed it so guessed. Didn't realise the network was down until I saw the 6 o'clock news and he didn't get the message, ds and I had dinner, dh reheated his and all good.

As he is a self employed tradesman and can be working anywhere it would be impossible to contact him in the event of an emergency without his mobile, but otherwise not a big deal for us.

It was the dawning of the apocalypse!!!

Like being in the 90's again!!!

On a serious note I use my phone for work, my registers are online and I stream my musics via my 4G so it was potentially very difficult for me.

However, I'm in my 30's (relevant?) although I appreciate how easy tech makes my like, I have also never completely relied on it as I'm suspicious 😂 and so I habitually print registers and have a backup playlist downloaded... I couldn't do everything as I had planned on Thursday but my clients knew no different.

I have an old rotary dial phone in case the power goes and my landline phone gives out - its a digital one that needs power.
I have a "spare" mobile but, foolishly, it's a pay and go on the same network as my standard mobile- O2. Gonna get a Vodafone cheapo spare.
I'm very old so life without mobiles holds no fear for me personally. I recognise that it's more than just chatting on mobiles, though.
My dd was a bit freaked out (she's 11). She normally gives me a ring to pick her up after an extra curricular thing. I just said I'll be there at X O'clock and we'll meet each other. Uneventful if a bit old school.

Wait for it to come back up again.

My family isn’t going to expire if they can’t contact me. If a dc fractures a bone, school know to take them to A&E, they don’t need me.
Phone calls aren’t actually that important unless you have no back up. Bad news can wait and so can good news.
Work are intelligent enough to work it out, since we’d all be in the same boat, and if the roads are blocked -snow?- I can cycle or walk. The world doesn’t end.

a) keep a landline - yes it may well be affected too but they are more robust, and a handset which does not require power

b) get a wind up radio

c) check now and keep a written note of frequencies of your local radio stations, plus national ones that carry plenty of news bulletins

Our school network crashed because as O2 data wasn't working, all of the students were connecting to our school's Wi-Fi network. If it were only that internet had stopped working, we probably could have managed, but we couldn't take registers or access files needed for lessons.

Crows.

Email?

We have broadband, are both on different networks (and also have works phones that are on different networks), and we have a landline. I have a plug in/battery radio and a wind up radio, and also a car radio.

I don’t use my phone much to contact people and other than popping on here when I am running a bath/waiting for the washing to finish/boobing the baby, I don’t use the internet for anything important.

I do feel very sorry for those people genuinely affected the other day: it was sadly there self-employed gig-economy poorly paid delivery drivers, Uber drivers etc who were genuinely affected because they couldn’t work. I don’t have sympathy for people not being able to check their fakebook!

The family youngsters are wedded to their phones. Even small things like agreeing to meet someone - they use a phone to keep in touch. (When I said that we used to wait their reaction was 'Duh......') I think they'd crack up.

I've got some plastic cups and string and some battery powered walker talkies.

Seriously though I clearly remember being a kid and trying to use a walkie talkie to say hi to my friend who lived across the way. We had no concept of mobile phones whatsoever!

I don't think I'll be much affected on a personal level however I use my work phone a lot for work, no landlines in my office anymore due to the introduction of hot desking and I work for adult social care so potentially devastating results.