When power outages happen you need your phones to work to check in with friends and loved ones, to call the power company to report your outage, or contact emergency services. With Citizens landline phone service all you need is a corded wall jack phone to stay connected during a power outage. Our standard landline service over twisted pair copper during and outage just as it always has. For our customers with residential voice over fiber, coaxial cable, or fixed wireless we provide a battery backup that will keep your service working for 24 hours in standby and 4 to 6 hours of talk time.
Many people prefer the convenience afforded by a cordless phone, which will not work in the event of a power outage. If you do use a cordless phone there are several options to stay connected during a power outage.
- The most affordable and simplest option is to have a spare corded phone on hand for use in a power outage. All you need to do is hook up the corded phone to your phone jack in the event of a power outage.
- Check to see if your cordless phone can work for a limited time during a power outage. Some cordless phones have a battery backup built in or have the ability to use the handset battery to power the base and will allow you to use the phone until power is restored or the battery is depleted. One phone with this capability is the Panasonic KX-TGE433B, though there are other models available.
- Use a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply). A UPS is a device that is installed between the wall outlet and your device, it contains a battery and will power your devices during an outage. The length of time the UPS will be able to power your devices depends on the power usage of the devices plugged into them and the battery capacity of the UPS. The UPS will also keep your device from re-powering in the event of a power flicker. One that we have tested and recommend is the APC BGE90M and the APC BGE70. There are other brands and models of UPS available, these have been tested and proven to work with Citizens' equipment.