How many DUers in the storm's path have their old phones that don't need electricity

[malaise]

a Rotary or some other non-electrical land line.
Take it out and disinfect it - your handset won't work whe power goes and land lines are way more reliable than cell phones after a major storm

[Sekhmets Daughter]

1. If you're still paying for a land line connection that is.

[NYFlip]

2. I have a cable phone that came with the package

I went out a bought $10 phone that does nothing but makes calls. I hope I don't need it

[mucifer]

3. As long as the phone poles don't blow down.

[gkhouston]

6. ^^ This. We still had a conventional landline when Ike hit. No landline service for days,

but there were enough intact cell towers for cell phones to work. Someone mentioned these on another thread. I think we may get one for next year.

http://www.sosready.com/products/hand-crank-cell-phone-charger-flashlight

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. Have one, but it's hooked up in the basement.

[fleur-de-lisa]

5. We lost the land line in Hurricane Isaac a couple of months ago . . .

just like the power, it was out for a week.

Please make sure you have a way to power your cell phones if you lose electricity!

[madinmaryland]

7. We have fiber here. If we lose power, we have about 8 hours of UPS for our landline.

[one_voice]

12. I have fiber here...

also have the back up batter too. But when they installed me, they told me if I got a regular old phone and plugged it into the phone jack I'd have phone service even without power. Did he lie to me?

One of the reasons I went with them was because they didn't tie into their modem/cable for phone like Comcast does.

I'm not going to be happy if I was told something that isn't true.

[madinmaryland]

13. He was evasive. Once the battery backup dies, you are SOL.

The way the old phone service worked was the power to the phone was provided was over the copper wires. The new fiber optic cabling does not and cannot carry power, so when you lose power, your phone will be dead.

[one_voice]

18. Oh yeah I found out...

needless to say I'm NOT happy. I called and asked about it. The guy flat out lied, cuz I told him I was without power for 17 hours one time and I didn't want to be without a phone and asked him would a plug in phone work for all power outages he said yes.

A supervisor is calling me later this week. I don't want to get anyone in trouble, but that was one of the reasons I went with them. I'll go with a separate phone company if I have to.

[rug]

8. I've already lost cell service in northeast Pennsylvania.

Sprint. My son has Verizon but he just got cut off in the middle of a call.

[TheCowsCameHome]

9. Yup. Good advice. I've got a box full of them.

In times like this, they're a blessing.

[one_voice]

10. I still have a land line....

and a plug into the wall phone jack phone. I pulled it out and it's ready to go.

I have a car charger for my cell just in case.

Hopefully I'm covered.

[smokey nj]

11. I have one that I keep handy for situations like this.

[Stinky The Clown]

14. We have two from the 1940s. Both work great.

Looks like this.

It works great in a power outage . . . . unless the phone lines are down, too, like they were in the Derecho this summer.







edit to add the forgotten image

[backscatter712]

15. Modern cable modems that also do VOIP phone service have built-in batteries.

That's to ensure you still have phone service if the power goes out.

I'm one of those that doesn't have a land-line, just a cell phone. Fortunately, mine has an extended battery that can last for about a day by itself (OK, it's a smartphone, and smartphones are notorious for being power-hungry.) I've also got a car charger, and a cable to plug it into my laptop, which will also charge it.

I'm also fortunate as far as Sandy goes in that I'm in Colorado, thus not in Sandy's path. Of course, Colorado gets its own share of nasty thunderstorms, tornadoes, blizzards, wildfires...

[Nye Bevan]

16. ME! ME! I guess I'm just too old to feel comfortable abandoning landline.

I never even switched to home phone via cable connection despite being constantly beseeched by every company to do this "triple play" stuff. Nope, I have a plain old landline.

[Throckmorton]

17. Well, maybe, maybe not,

Turns out that my landline phone was connected to a remote switching site that requires commercial power. The batteries lasted about 4 hours after Irene, and then that phone was dead for 5 days. They had to bring in a trailer mounted generset to power it.

My brand-New ATT-Uverse lasted 2 days, as its batteries were only a few months old.

I have dumped landline in favor of a Verizon home phone, got a great deal too, 29.00 up front, and 10.99 a month for the duration of my Verizon contract (20 more months).