On Sun, 26 Aug 2007 00:02:50 -0700, terry
wrote:

On Aug 25, 11:21 pm, "Pete C." wrote:
Jon Danniken wrote:

"Jethro" wrote:
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.

When power is restored, sure enough, phone service becomes restored
some 30 or so minutes later.

My immediate neighbor does not lose his phone during the same outages.
Yet his immediate neighbor does just like I do. This same random
choice of working phones versus non-working phones occurs throughout
this community of some 100 houses.

All I get is a song and dance from the phone company. They say they
will look into it, but do not.

Anyone have any ideas?

Does it happen if you flip off your main breaker?

Jon

If it doesn't happen when you flip off your main breaker, there is a
good probability that the telco has a local SLIC pedestal somewhere
nearby with a failed or defective battery backup. You and your neighbors
may be on circuits to that SLIC while other neighbors are still on old
copper to the regular central office. It's also possible that you are
all connected to this SLIC pedestal and it's battery backup is
functional, but a particular frame within the SLIC ped. is not
functioning properly on the battery power. Getting the telco to properly
dispatch a tech to properly inspect and test that SLIC ped. will be a
challenge since the CSR you get when you call typically doesn't have a
clue. Calling the telco from a cell phone during an actual power failure
when the problem is actively occurring might get them to test at a time
when they will see that the SLIC is not reachable. Good luck.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Agree completely. Without more info we are however guessing.

Another possibility is that some customers have been provided with
telephone service by means of 'pair gain' devices. These were often
used when there were insufficient cable pairs; as communities grew ot
avoided placing more cables etc. So, for example your neighbour has
telephone service via the pair of copper wires, while you may have
service provided by one of these power gain devices over the same pair
of wires. Some of those pair gain units are powered by AC
electricity?

Again your telephone service may be provided by a cable TV company.
Some of those companies do not provide the same power back up of
traditional telcos. and in some instances no back up power at all!
Our cable TV fails during power outages for example. Sometimes
noticeable but usually not a problem cos our power is off also!

Expecting any telephone that requires electricity, to work, when the
power is off, is no more reasonable than expecting your electric
shaver or electric toaster to work during a power outage!

BTW do you have any other AC operated devices that may be also
connected to the telphone line that could busy it out during a power
outage? Fax machine? Alarm system? Also any el-cheapo phones; some of
which can do funny things to your regular phone line during power
outages!


Hey guys - thanks a meg!

You have given me much food for thought!

I will pursue things accordingly.

Jethro