NBN.. no power no phone??

[catsnknots]

"There will also be a separate power supply box which includes battery backup that will keep selected phone services* running for up to five hours in case of power failure. *The backup battery only provides power for a phone service provided through a voice (UNI-V) port on the Network Termination Device. Phone and other services connected to the data (UNI-D) ports, and mains powered telephones, alarms and other devices such as cordless phones connected to any port will not work during a power failure."

Is this true? 

So if I am without power for one week like we were this year will I not be able to make phone calls? 

Considering that we were not able to even get out of town for four days and had a lot of people very distressed I would be very concerned that we had no power and in the future that means no phone. 

[azureline**]

Many people are in that situation already as they have cordless phones that do not work without electricity connections. For this reason I have a telstra phone which remains connected to our main phone outlet.

[soul_art]

I have an old Telstra phone for that reason too, az but if I'm reading ^^^^ correctly, it says there will only be 5 hours of battery power for those phones ?

If that's right, people will be seriously affected.  I'm lucky that Telstra couriers me a sat phone if the phone service is going to be out for more than 48 hours........cause I'm special:-p

[azureline**]

I find it difficult to decipher exactly what it means, maybe freakie might know?

[polksaladallie]

"There will also be a separate power supply box which includes battery backup that will keep selected phone services* running for up to five hours in case of power failure. *The backup battery only provides power for a phone service provided through a voice (UNI-V) port on the Network Termination Device. Phone and other services connected to the data (UNI-D) ports, and mains powered telephones, alarms and other devices such as cordless phones connected to any port will not work during a power failure."

Is this true? 

So if I am without power for one week like we were this year will I not be able to make phone calls? 

Considering that we were not able to even get out of town for four days and had a lot of people very distressed I would be very concerned that we had no power and in the future that means no phone. 

This info has been known for a couple of years, plenty of time to save up for a few cheap pre-paid mobiles.

[catsnknots]

My $800 mobile did nothing when we had no power for 6 days... 

I was lucky I had a car charger and could sit in the running car for an hour to get a bit of charge but many did not... 

I now have a solar panel, a car charger, and a gyro lamp that I can also charge a mobile from... 

but that is not going to be good for everyone... 

[catsnknots]

I find it difficult to decipher exactly what it means, maybe freakie might know?

From what i understand the box needs power to work... not sure if it is the box at the exchange  or the box at your home... 

I know that when we had no power for 6 days Telstra managed to get a generator to the exchange within an hour (lucky the local telstra guy lives down the road and was not blocked from getting in) and that kept the exchange going.. not sure if it was just for the air conditioner or if it is because the phones do need power...  

[colic2bullsgirlore]

Our main exchange has just been upgraded to optic fibre and that also required building a new sub exchange way out in the buhndoo that does not have backup power at all so anybody past that exchange loses dial tone when there is a power outage. Previous to the sub exchange but post NBn optic fibre hook up we had dial tone back through the copper lines because of the backup power from the main exchange

The main exchange has approximately 5 hrs back up power and the users between the sub exchange and main exchange get about 5 hrs call time.

In the recent floods around this area the generators/back up generators at the "bush" mobile phone towers ran out of diesel, the resuppliers could not reach the towers so subsequently there were no telephone communications available at all in some areas whether it be mobile, landline emergency or non emergency.

We use 2 600watt pure sine wave inverters and an old industrial generator to run our NBN satellite modem and charge laptops etc during flood isolation even though we can hear the traffic from the Pacific Highway and the trains go clickety click on the North Coast rail line we will only ever at best (and all of our neighbors) have NBN satellite broadband a fact that not many city slicking sea changers factor in when they move to greener pastures

[monman12]

August 2012

".......It won’t be compulsory to have a battery backup box installed when you get the NBN, according to the new NBN Co Corporate Plan published today.

Buried in today’s new NBN Co Corporate Plan is confirmation that the government is dropping the rule that you must have a battery backup unit installed."

http://www.pcauthority.com.au/News/311418,nbn-drops-the-compulsory-battery-box.aspx

CB, telephone exchanges have battery and generator backup for days. Battery banks instantly provide network power when the mains supply fails, and then generators can take over for longer period power failures.

For years I have purchased Telstra/Optus  expensive sealed 12 100AH gel batteries with 6 years life left (after 3 years use),  and then sold them for a very good profit, use them in my boat/4WD etc.

[colic2bullsgirlore]

That may be the theory John but the facts are different that we have experienced here and had meetings with telstra representatives who explained the situation if the sub exchange loses power then we lose dial tone.

If the sub exhange retains power but there is an electrical outage past that point then we have dial tone but no power.

Battery banks instantly provide network power when the mains supply fails,

The telstra reps acknowledged that the batteries had failed in the last situation and it was not until enough people whinged that the batteries were replaced and the generator fixed