Jim Redelfs wrote:

In article , "Pete C."
wrote:

Considering the low power consumption of your cable phone router, a $75
(if that) UPS would keep it running for at least as long as the cable
companies backup power for their line gear. I have a fairly large UPS
(1420VA) that happily powers my cable modem, router, network switch and
web/mail/vru/storage server for over an hour and a half. I also have two
generators that I can bring online if needed.

I believe that neither a subscriber-provided UPS or genset can be used to
restore power to a cable-based phone system as it is the current applied to
the neighborhood's coaxial network that powers the voice port mounted on each
subscribers' home.

Nevertheless, yours is a classic example of our decreasing tolerance for
service outages and our improving lifestyle that places such things as a
standby generator within reach of more and more mere mortals.

In the case of a home-based VOIP system (Voice Over Internet Protocol) during
a grid power failure, a UPS then generator could power the system in the home.
Of course, the VOIP system relies on working input from the broadband
provider. If the neighborhood system, which provides the needed data flow to
a VOIP system, is down, the VOIP user has no "dial tone".
--

JR

I haven't run across a cable company that doesn't have backup power. I'm
sure there is some crappy system without backup somewhere, but all I
have dealt with had reasonable backup. Now that they are in the voice
and data markets as well as video they are also taking backup even more
seriously.