Landline and Mobile Telephones

[liberatordeluxe]

This question is really aimed at mobile and landline telecommunications here in the UK.

Which one would be more reliable in extreme bad weather? A landline or mobile phone? I have a cordless landline but also got a corded one for when there are power cuts which are quite frequent being rural.

I always assumed a mobile phone would be more reliable because they have no cables etc. Is that correct?

 

[liberatordeluxe]

Anyone???

 

[hydralique]

I doubt if the systems in the UK are much different than those in the US. Here it’s a crapshoot and depends on what the problem is. A wired landline is vastly simpler than a cellphone, the basic technology is after all over a century old and it takes little power to run, none of which comes from your own installation. However, one break in a wire anywhere between the switching station and your house and it’s dead until a technician can find and fix the break. In a natural disaster that can take a long time, compounded here by the fact that phone companies are increasingly disinterested in keeping landlines well maintained and ensuring that all their components are readily available to service personnel.

A cellphone relies on a sophisticated and complex systems of antennas, none of which can broadcast or receive from along distance. So if a disaster takes out a local antenna or two your phone may not work at all. A cellphone must have internal power to operate and if it doesn’t get a signal it will drain the batteries trying to find the signal. If your power goes out frequently I’d be sure to have an emergency charger or a car charger so if the local cell tower also loses power you won’t have a dead phone when it comes back online. One advantage of the cellphone in an emergency is that even if your local towers are down you could take a drive with your phone and probably find a working tower. In the past this could be done to find public telephones but those have rapidly gone the way of the dodo here in the US, and I’ve heard even London is phasing out the old red booths.

There is no cut and dried answer to which is best, IMO you need both.

 

[cornutt]

Here's my experience from living through the U.S. 2011 tornado outbreak and a five-day wide area power failure. In the first few hours right after the storms, the land like continued to work, while making cell calls was impossible due to heavy call volume and the fact that the system had taken some damange.

However, a lot of land lines these days don't go directly back to the central office, but rather go into a neighborhood multiplexer. The one that served our neighborhood ran out of battery after 12 hours, and after that our land line was dead for the duration. The cell system, on the other hand, got a lot better as call volume returned to normal and the carriers succeeded in getting some damaged infrastructure back on line. It was still the case that only about half of placed calls were going through, but at least it was working, and we were able to keep one of our cells charged using an automotive charger.

So as you can see, we needed both at different times. One thing to keep in mind about the land line is that, in order for it to be useful in this situation, you need at least one old fashioned phone that doesn't require house power.

 

[vacbear58]

Landline vs Mobile

A lot will depend on what the mobile coverage is like in your area but it looks like you have all bases covered as you have a corded land line available should you have a power cut. While that is operational I would use that in preference to the mobile so as not to drain the battery if you have a power cut so that that will remain you final backstop should the land line go out, although in my experience it is rare for the power to go out THAT long

Al

 

[liberatordeluxe]

Despite being rural I find Vodafone and O2 the best for reception. Really not bothered about 3/4G as gone back to a proper mobile phone so don't need internet access. I never have found smart phones great for phone calls. I think when a device does too much it puts a lot of strain on the very actual functions you need I.e phone calls. Basic phones or feature phones will always be better in my opinion and experience to be used as a phone and for reception. Thanks for all the helpful advice.

 

[davetranter]

Landline-Cellphone

Replies #2 and #3 give a pretty full assessment of the situation. Cordless landlines give the worst possible service, since a local power outage or line damage will deny service. I agree with Hydraulique that really you need both these days, if you really can't be without service. If your landline is underground fed, or is only overhead from the pole to your house, service should be very reliable. If you are a rural customer, fed through numerous spans of overhead cable, then damage is more likely.

AFAIK cellular masts have little, if any, battery backup, so a local power outage will prevent service at home.

If you have any specific questions please feel free to append.

All best

Dave T (Ex GPO Telephone Engineer)

 

[tolivac]

All types of phone service are vulenerable to failures-both nature and manmade.Poles can get knocked down by natural acts and vehicles colliding with them.Underground lines can fail by burrowing animals damgaging them--and of course we all know "backhoe"& "shovel" fades!And undergound lines the insulation fails from age and water-earth movements and vibration from vehicles above the lines traveling over them or near them.And yes,lightening-cell tower staions from quakes and high winds-and their gensets at the tower base can only run for so long-few hours to a couple days before it needs refueling.And the power draw increases on either from people calling each other about the disasters!So batteries and gensets will last even less.

 

[cornutt]

After the 2011 tornado outbreak here, for the next 5-6 days the cell providers were sending trucks around to their cell sites to refuel the gensets. I've been told it was a near 24/7 job (they were having to go about 50 miles out of town to obtain fuel).

 

[iej]

It very much depends:

Landlines are vulnerable from being cut or damaged in the wind if there's any aspect of them running overhead. In the UK and here in Ireland mostly they only run overhead for a very short distance from a pole to your house in some older areas and in some rural areas.

In general, telephone exchanges for PSTN service tend to have fairly hefty battery band often generator back up (in the large ones anyway). However, your landline might not necessarily be provided by a very large exchange it could be from an "exchange" in an oversized street cabinet at this stage. So, you're only going to have as much battery backup as that cabinet has.

Mobile phones have a lot of strengths, but they're impacted by loss of power in an emergency. The biggest issue would actually be loss of an ability to charge your phone. Although, you can always charge it in your car if you're really stuck.

Mobile phone transmission sites / towers usually have a degree of battery back up and generator backup at key locations. However, some of the in-fill transmitters don't have much more than a few hours. So, you can find in a sustained widespread power cut you can lose coverage in some areas. You probably would get a signal from a major transmitter though if you were to stand outside.

The other issue with mobile networks is that they can become completely swamped in a major emergency as everyone tries to make calls simultaneously and the towers can only handle so many at a time.

Overall, I think people over-estimate how resilient the POTS/PSTN network is. The fundamental risk with that is wire breaks / flood damage to underground junctions / street cabinets.

If you're in an area prone to flooding for example, your mobile phone service is likely to be far more secure in a flood than your landline service.

It's all swings and roundabouts really!

The closest thing I've ever had to a 'major emergency' was during a violent winter storm where lightening took out my phone line when it struck the front lawn!! The line wasn't directly hit but it induced a current on it that destroyed my phone, DSL modem and monitored alarm control panel and also blew the fuses at the exchange or wherever the phone line terminates.

Mobile service was working fine tho.