Land line not working when power was out?

[CheyenneWills]

When the power goes out, I switch my phone to a basic landline phone I keep on hand. It takes 4 AA batteries and works without power. Here is a link to the type of phone I am talking about:

https://www.amazon.com/AT-Trimline-Corde...156&sr=8-3

I suspect that any batteries in that phone are for some of the "optional" features, such as the speed dial and not for the actual "telephone" part.


Ultimately what the real issue is, is that the phone company "box" that you and your neighbors phone lines lead back to is powered off the electrical grid (e.g. Xcel).  If the electric grid is down, the "box" falls back to a battery backup which can last only for so long.   

But lets say that the "box" has a generator with a lot of fuel.  If you have an old style cord phone, then you should have phone service for your "land line".  You can verify this by looking at the phone itself.  If the only wire going into the phone is from the phone jack, your phone should continue to work as long as the phone system itself has power.

Anything else within your house (cordless phones, DSL modem, network routers, computers, VoIP boxes, etc.) will require a power source.  If the power grid is down, you would need a UPS (battery backup) or a generator.