[mdlug] It happened...

[Joseph C. Bender]

Aaron Kulkis wrote:
> Garry Stahl wrote:
>> Aaron Kulkis wrote:
>>> This is why landlines still have utility, and should not be
>>> disposed of on a whim.
>>>   
>> It has been my experience that when everything else is going to Hell
>> POTS still works.  The phone system is extremely robust.
>>
> Absolutely.  I keep it around because the POTS have their
> own sustained back-up power system, whereas cell-phones
> towers are much more reliant on the local grid (my understanding
> is that they have battery backup, but not generators like
> the POTS in the local central switch offices.)
> 
	This is not always the case any more, and has not been for some time.

	Remote terminals are grid dependent and only usually have 8 hours of 
runtime in their local battery cabinets.  Guess what telcos prefer to 
deploy these days instead of running massive trunklines out to a new 
neighborhood, or retrofitting an old one that doesn't have enough feeder 
capacity?

	They have generator outlets, but that's only good for a localized 
outage, the telcos don't have enough generator carts to power every 
remote in a given area.  The blackout of 2003 proved that the phone 
companies were not the highly-reliable entities everyone thought they 
were.  All the central offices stayed up for the most part, but any 
remote terminal hosted customers lost their POTS and other wireline 
services 4-8 hours in.

	Interestingly enough, what *did* happen after 2003 is that at many of 
the major cell towers in the area, often owned by an independent company 
that leases tower space, installed gensets to run everything.  THere's 
usually the typical telco-style battery plant, but generator power is 
available.  A friend of mine who works as a cell tech told me that most 
of the larger sites have some sort of genset with usually 12-24 hours of 
fuel on top of the battery plant.  The cell MTSOs are built like COs, so 
they generally don't go down either.

	What I suspect that we'll see happening is POTS getting less reliable 
and cell services getting more reliable over time.

(And for the record, I have a Bell 554 set on my wall in the kitchen 
attached to a pulse-DTMF converter attached to my WideOpenWest VOIP 
cable modem.  My fax line is the only POTS to the house, and I know that 
it goes straight to the CO.)



-- 
Joseph Bender
Bendorius Consulting
P: 248-434-5580
F: 248-434-5581
jcbender at bendorius com