dpb wrote:

Pete C. wrote:

....

Certainly it _might_, but there's no way they can regulate 100%
reliability. Only if there is something so fundamentally flawed in
their system that is fixable would there be a possibility of regulatory
violation. That is possible, of course, but wouldn't be my first choice
of likely outcomes...

--

Nobody is talking about 100% reliability. But power failures are not
uncommon and can be planned for. If there was no regulatory requirement
for the phone network to work during a power outage, a lot of telco's
would save money and not bother with all the batteries and backup generators
that they have.

I bet that these days, even "homeland security" would have something to
say about a phone system that fails during a power outage.

OP/Jethro: what state are you in?