"Jethro" wrote in message
...

Whenever I have a power outage, I also lose all of my phones - dial
tone and all. If some calls me, a recording says all circuits are
busy - which of course they are not. This has been happening for over
a year now - during which time we have had several outages.

This loss of phones is for all my phones, some of which are cordless,
and two of which are corded.

1. Cordless phones cannot work when the base station
is unpowered.
2. Your cord-connected phone ought to remain in service
even if the electricity fails. The phone company ought to
be able to check your house circuits. Because two or
more houses exhibit this behavior, the fault is probably
in the phone company trunk.
3. In the mean time, a cell phone may meet your needs.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)