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  • mhoye but seasonally spookymhoye@cosocial.ca
    Oct 14, 2026, 12:44 AM

    Question that I'd like to answer without imposing on the thread that raised it:

    Oldheads like myself remember that landline telephones ran on their own separate power supply - in a blackout, landlines still worked fine.

    Now that we''ve moved to cellular, I know cellphones don't have the same quality even if the infrastructure - phones, towers, interlinks - is all still battery backed.

    My question is - is the old phone-line nostalgia badly misplaced because of wireless handsets in the house?

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  • Donniemacbraughton@infosec.exchange
    Oct 14, 2026, 12:59 AM

    @djsundog @mhoye I’ve had a corded line into a voip on a ups system forever. Not quite as reliable but there if needed…haven’t ever needed it, yet!

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  • Kool Mo Zikmck@mas.to
    Oct 14, 2026, 12:48 AM

    @mhoye Land lines had a real resonancy. Voices sounded so great. There was a bit of electrical distortion but it sounded good. A thrum.

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  • Your weary 'net denizencstanhope@social.coop
    Oct 14, 2026, 12:51 AM

    @mhoye Any nostalgia might still be misplaced, but the wireless handsets in my family had rechargeable batteries, and the base station itself connected to the landline. They still worked for a time following loss of power. We also kept a non-wireless phones around.

    (For what it's worth, my nostalgia is rooted in not being expected to always be available and tracked.)

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  • smells of bikessmellsofbikes@mastodon.social
    Oct 14, 2026, 12:54 AM

    @mhoye both my mom and I kept full wired, not cordless, phones in the house until they turned off the copper. (We also had wireless handsets.)

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  • Dan Sugalskiwordshaper@weatherishappening.network
    Oct 14, 2026, 1:19 AM

    @mhoye it depends on where you are. In some ways cell networks are more reliable than the old twisted pair copper networks — they’re less prone to widespread failure from downed trees (from hurricanes or ice storms) in suburban and rural areas with overhead lines, and it’s usually a lot faster to get a dead cell site back up when power is out than to get lines restrung. (And at some points at least some cell sites had generators, but definitely nothing like central offices used to have)

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  • Peter LudemannPeterLudemann@mathstodon.xyz
    Oct 14, 2026, 6:34 AM

    @wordshaper @mhoye The switching offices I'm familiar with didn't have generators but did have a basement full of lead-acid batteries (which also acted as surge protectors) and everything ran on 48v DC. (I think this also powered the phones in people's homes)

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  • just_one_bearjust_one_bear@mastodon.social
    Oct 14, 2026, 1:52 AM

    @mhoye Not *badly* misplaced. Copper POTS needs a stable and clean -48V DC to work so that means badonkers-sized battery banks at the Central Office. Power for the service and a backup "for free".

    If a tree took down power to your block it would likely have taken your phone, too. But your neighbors a block over could be in the dark but have working landline to call it in. And that neighbor in the dark calling to the power company could have been you!

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  • Fear and Tooting in Las Vegassteevmi1@freeradical.zone
    Oct 14, 2026, 4:21 AM

    @mhoye @djsundog There's also a battery to back up the equipment in the basement from Verizon for FIOS so the phone keeps working in a power outage. I get to hear the beeping that the ONT is now on battery when we lose power.

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  • siliconlurkersiliconlurker@mstdn.party
    Oct 14, 2026, 6:37 AM

    @mhoye Mostly not misplaced, but with a big asterisk: a true POTS line plus a dumb corded phone was powered from the central office, which had serious battery/generator backup. Cordless handsets broke that model because the base needs house power. And many “landlines” now are really VoIP over an ONT/cable box, so they’re only as good as the local backup battery.

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  • Jean-François Mezeijfmezei@cosocial.ca
    Oct 14, 2026, 8:18 AM

    @mhoye not all cell towers are created equal. Some only have batteries for a few hours , some also have generators. Carriers don’t have enough mobile generators to recharge all batteries so there are rolling blackouts. (Example when hurricane hit Nova Scotia à few years ago).

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  • Jean-François Mezeijfmezei@cosocial.ca
    Oct 14, 2026, 8:18 AM

    @mhoye and with the 1998 ice storm , Quebec found out hard way that POTS landlines were no longer “always on”. Bell had moré and more “remotes” that were battery powered to serve a neighbourhood and bell didnt have enough mobile generators to keep all of them recharged. An employee had to sit in car for hours next to each remote to watch over the portable generator recharging the pedestal and prevent theft of generator. I didn’t lose phone service but know many who did.

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  • Chris Siebenmanncks@mastodon.social
    Oct 14, 2026, 10:29 PM

    @mhoye IMHO the old phone line nostalgia mostly dates from a pre-wireless handset era. If you want the resilience you need an all-wired or separately powered wireless system, where even the base station has its own batteries (I don't think they can power off the phone line).

    (I'm old fashioned so I have wired phone service and a plain old wired phone. The former is for my DSL, the latter just in case and also it's handy for some troubleshooting.)

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