Power Failure

Our Business internet connection is FTTC in Midhurst, West Sussex. Current the whole town has a power failure but our solar power farm on the roof is providing all the power we need. I would have thought our internet connection would be OK, but no we have no service! Also being on VoIP, no phones either. This is a pretty poor state of affairs by the telecommunications industry. Your thoughts on this please ............

Edited by trolleybus (Mon 23-Oct-23 11:09:09)

The cabinet that supplies your FTTC has only a limited power backup which has been exhausted while the power cut has being ongoing. The problem will disappear with FTTP (provided the head-end exchange has proper contingency arrangements).

Mobile phones are as liable as FTTC to stop working in a power cut as most masts similarly suffer from a lack of adequate power back-up.

So a pretty poor state of affairs in more than one arm of the telecommunications industry.

The whole town ? Then Openreach bods will be running round like blue arsed flies replacing batteries…… they don’t last long though

So a pretty poor state of affairs in more than one arm of the telecommunications industry.

I see it as more of a failure of the regulators - commercial companies will always cut costs unless they are forced to meet a particular standard.

In reply to a post by sheephouse:

So a pretty poor state of affairs in more than one arm of the telecommunications industry.

I see it as more of a failure of the regulators - commercial companies will always cut costs unless they are forced to meet a particular standard.

Probably sums up what I really meant. Thanks.

Blame the power companies - why don't they have built in resilience?

Maybe they should have two grids feeding every house and business and then other entities such as BT would not have any requirement for back up supplies.

It's also partially a failure of the business concerned - if they have always-on requirements they need to look at ethernet services.

It doesn't just affect businesses though - there are lots of individuals that may need a resilient telephone service .
We had a hedgerow fire that threatened to spread to our house a few years ago - in the middle of a 7 hour power cut. No land-line, no mobile (tower lasts ~45 mins). Option was to drive somewhere to make a 999 call or do without help - neighbours and lots of buckets eventually did the job.

In reply to a post by sheephouse:

It doesn't just affect businesses though - there are lots of individuals that may need a resilient telephone service .
We had a hedgerow fire that threatened to spread to our house a few years ago - in the middle of a 7 hour power cut. No land-line, no mobile (tower lasts ~45 mins).

Using your emergency as an example everyone must need a resilient telephone service, so what is the solution?

In reply to a post by trolleybus:

Our Business internet connection is FTTC in Midhurst, West Sussex. Current the whole town has a power failure but our solar power farm on the roof is providing all the power we need. I would have thought our internet connection would be OK, but no we have no service! Also being on VoIP, no phones either. This is a pretty poor state of affairs by the telecommunications industry. Your thoughts on this please ............

This issue has been discussed here many times about FTTC cabinets only having a short battery backup period so I do feel sorry for non forum members who have recently switched to digital voice and are totally oblivious to this issue and only find out when the power goes off.