Power And Phone

A few weeks back Josh Sheldon wrote to say that he loses his phone service (even with the old kind of phones that don't require electricity to run) when there is a power outage and asked me if I lost mine in that situation too. I said I didn't think so but I am still not sure because we haven't had any interruptions in power for me to check. Anyway, Josh asked some other people and then called Verizon. Here is what he found out and the good suggestion he has for valley residents.

Last month I asked you and other WVR residents about their land line service, here's what I found out:

According to Matt Millin, the local field foreman, in rural areas (like ours) for the last 20 years Verizon has been installing devices called multiplexors which break up the dial tone for multiple residences, there are two multiplexors on Woodland Valley Road.  These multiplexors are less expensive than running copper cable to each and every residence but the problem is they need to be electrically powered so during power outages they rely on backup batteries but often these batteries need to be replaced regularly and aren't always.  

The only thing we can do is complain to Verizon when the service goes out and threaten to switch to Time Warner, if enough people do so they'll be forced to run copper cable to each residence or at the very least be more proactive in replacing the backup batteries.

All the best,

Josh Sheldon