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[WTFH]

No generators?

Some have battery backup that will give them up to 6 hours power, but that's not everywhere.

[d000hg]

You want that satellite internet Mr Musk is selling - then you can email for help in case of an emergency.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Now is no time to be meddling with landlines


SIR – Recent letters (March 5) have suggested that the removal of BT analogue landlines and reliance on the internet for the “digital voice system” replacement may cause problems in the event of a power cut, and that this might be even more of a problem when there is a lack of mobile phone signal.

This is not a theoretical situation. Our village, which does not have a mobile phone signal, experienced a three-day power cut in November 2021 in the middle of a snowstorm. After the second day I saw a puzzled 95-year-old standing in the snow outside her house, wondering why she could not contact her family to ask for help. I walked a mile up the road to access a phone signal to ring the family and ask them to fetch her. Luckily, I had some residual battery power. We had similar problems after the recent storms.

When we consider the new uncertainties that our civilisation faces, access to reliable telephone communication would seem vital.

Professor Robert Kirby
Maer, Stafford

WHS.