Henry Rifle Forums

I keep a landline, too. It's called a Plain Old Telephone System, POTS for short.

My cable and my power go out several times in any given year; sometimes for more than a week at time during hurricanes and nor'easters. I have a backup generator for the power, but the POTS has never failed on any of these occasions. I live in an area where cell connections are minimal, so the POTS is, in a real sense, a lifeline.

I also own my own cable modem and wireless router for internet connected to Comcast, which provides my TV service, too. I declined the VoiP phone system, but my new T-Mobile service uses WIFI, so I do use it when the system is up.

I call what we have a landline, but it's not POTS in the traditional sense. Service comes to the house over fiber optic to the point of service (POS) box. The POS box breaks out connections for the phone lines, coax for TV (not used) and RJ45 for internet. There is a backup battery that powers the POS during power outages. We supposedly have 'landline' phone service during power outages until the battery dies. Which never happens as our generator takes over when the power is out.

I was actually surprised the phone company ran fiber optic to us a few years ago. We're a bit remote with only 5 households on our spur of the line. When there are extreme major power outages we're not exactly on the priority list for service restoration. It can be 3-10 days before the repair crews have up hooked back up when our share of the damage is close to us. Then we've had power lines down on the road and had to take the gator through the woods to get to the main road to town for diesel. That said our usual power outages last a 1/2 day and as much as 1-1/2 days. Not so bad really.