No Mobile Phone? Warning

[barry1010]

If you are reliant on your landline be aware that modern phones will not work during a power cut. Now is the time to seriously consider buying a cheap dumb phone and keeping it charged for such emergencies.
Try and persuade any vulnerable people you know who are reluctant or adamant to get a cheap mobile and learn how to use it.

[diddlydo]

Much simpler than that is to keep a phone that plugs directly into a phone socket - that will still work in a power cut. It's only the modern phones that you can walk around with that need the base unit to be plugged into the electricity supply.
My mobile would be no good to me at all as I can't get a phone signal where I live!

[drmorgans]

I wonder if BT (and the other providers) have thought about what happens in this situation when they've forced us to move to internet phones.

[calmck]

Agree. Keep or get a phone that connects directly to the phone socket. We have one as power cuts can be frequent

[calmck]

Hopefully you will still have old landline socket

[barry1010]

Diddly, those old phone are already being phased out and many homes can't use the old PSTN lines and have IP phonelines instead. These will not work in a power cut. BT call it Digital Voice, other providers have their own terms but it's all the same thing - phone calls over the internet

[Barsel]

I've got a few of these, that I let the Grandkids play with.
No point though if the person you're phoning only has the type that needs an electric socket.
https://www.argos.co.uk/product/4625089?clickSR=slp:term:telephones:17:61:1

[Peter Pedant]

thx barr' sensible point
built in redundancy for a predicted emerge

[youngmafbog]

Get diesel generator and bask in the knowledge you a peeing of that sour faced Greta girl at the same time :-)

[Giggsie]

Digital voice phones will not work if there is a power cut and you will not be able to plug an old style phone into phone socket as will not work. Old line is no longer in use. So essential we all keep a mobile if our landline is digital voice.

[jourdain2]

We're in that situation, Barry. Have v. cheap mobile phones - but there is no mobile phone reception in the house!

[cashier]

I kept my old phone, plugs into the jack, when I bought modern ones. It has proved very useful when we were flooded with no electricity for a few days and other power cuts since.

[Buenchico]

Just to add some support to Barry and others:

All UK phone lines are being switched over from the current service (whereby there's power made available through the phone socket to route calls over the exchange network) to VOIP ('voice over internet protocol'), which BT calls 'Digital Voice'.

Under the new service, everyone will have a router in their home (even if they're not internet users), new-style phones connecting by wi-fi to them. Calls will then be passed over the internet, rather than through the exchange network, in a similar way to how Skype calls are made now.

It will no longer be possible to connect a basic phone to a wall socket, as there will be no power to the line to get it to work and no exchange network for it to connect to.

See here for BT's confirmation that people won't be able to use landline phones during a power cut in future: https://www.bt.com/help/landline/digital-voice--will-my-service-work-in-a-power-cut-

Barry's suggestion (of ensuring that one has a mobile phone available for such suggestions) is clearly a sound one but it still doesn't address the problem of what will happen if a major power outage knock mobile phone masts out of service too.