Douglas W. Reese

The FCC is supposed to adopt rules regarding the elimination of landlines, or POTS (Plain Ole Telephone Service), or copper telephone lines that run to your house.  The use of a landline has diminished greatly in the age of cellphones and wireless devices.

The FCC is implementing rules which will require providers give notice to homeowners and businesses before they eliminate access or force users to go to wireless or internet-based services instead.

https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-adopts-rules-help-americans-communicate-during-emergencies

The problem doing that of course, is that copper lines work almost always.  In a disaster or major event, cell service almost always either goes down, or becomes overwhelmed and unusable.  Millions have already eliminated their home phone lines for cell phones, or moved to cable/fiber based phone service through their cable provider.  However, if the power goes out so does your phone service, unless you have battery backup on  your receivers.

Of course, for the telephone companies, maintaining copper networks with fewer and fewer users is very expensive for them, and are moving towards getting rid of the “old”, but very stable POTS system.   What does that mean for users?

Well, if you only use a cellphone, then you risk being unable to communicate in many situations.  For those who get their phone service through their cable company, as long there isn’t a major cable outage, and you have battery backup on your home phones…you will be able to call out, at least until your batteries run down.

Me, I still have my reliable, outdated, copper line to my house, in addition to cellphone, PC’s, etc.  Anytime the power goes out, I can pick up the phone and still have a dial tone.  Antiquated, but it works, and I’ll keep it as long as I can.

I’m a big believer in being prepared (even though I was never a Boy Scout).  Is one of the major reasons I became interested in HAM radio.   As the Amateur Radio Relay League likes to say – “When All Else Fails… Amateur Radio”.   Even in the biggest disaster, if everything else goes down, there will still be people communicating on amateur radios.