Kerman2023

REPAIR SERVICE

Do Your Phones Work When The Lights Go Out? Continued technological changes such as cordless phones and fiber optic cables running to your home have changed the way your telephone works. Historical provision of phone service over a copper wire and a phone with a handset wired into it allowed customers to make phone calls even when the power went down. Today, many customers have a cordless handset that is dependent upon commercial power to operate the base station and handset. With these phones, a power outage will also leave you without phone service.

What To Do To Make Sure You Have Phone Service In The Event Of A Power Outage: There are several actions to consider to ensure that you have phone service in the event that your location loses its commercial power. • First, if you use cordless phones in your house, you should purchase a traditional wired phone for emergencies. Wired phones will work over copper lines even with commercial power outages. Wired phones receive their power from batteries at the telephone company. • Second, you could purchase and keep a charged UPS battery backup to operate the phone in the event that power is lost. This is only useful if you routinely charge this backup. • Third, if you have fiber optic service to your home (ask the phone company if you are unsure), there will be a battery backup in your system as it enters the home. This battery backup will need to be maintained as batteries lose power over time. Maintenance of this battery system must be kept up by either the home owner or the phone company in order for the phone to work when power is out. Again, check with your phone company on who is responsible for this maintenance. • Remember, when you are operating on any kind of alternative power, keep non-emergency calls to a minimum. Your ability to make calls will be limited by the type of backup power you are using. Typically, any type of battery power will only last for four hours or less under constant use. • Also, power outages may indicate other emergency issues. Emergency agencies may need to be communicating and have need of these facilities. Many customers may be calling family, friends and business associates to determine if they need help. Limit your calls only to essential ones. • Keep your power backup charged. Without power, cordless phones will not work during a power outage, rendering the cordless phone useless until power is reestablished – an inconvenience at best, or the difference between life and death in a crisis.

https://www.pge.com/en_US/residential/outages/public-safety-power-shuttoff/prepare-for-psps.page

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