I’m on Lebara who use the Vodafone network. £5 a month for 2GB, 1000 UK minutes, 100 international minutes, unlimited texts, plus free roaming in the EU.
It turns out that none of them are reliable when there’s a power outage! I was really surprised at the lack of resilience in the network this past few days.
More of this later, when I finally get my Ben Cleuch report done…
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My home phone is with Virgin. Instead of twisted pair to the exchange the handset plugs into the cable modem. So if there is a power cut I lose my landline. BT have begun installing similar equipment I believe. We are giving up resilience because the politicians and beancounters have no idea.
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Very little mobile coverage here (Both Teesdale and Weardale) = all knocked out by the storm, as is DAB and the TV relay, and it would be interesting to see how much of the emergency services network (airwave) had a wobble. It seems that the bean counters have not thought about (uk) resiliance. Our new fibre optic cable starts in conduit under the road and as the conduit was blocked they went for the cheapest option and put it up new telegraph poles, which are now at very strange angles and the superstrength kevlar reinforced cable has snapped.; Thankfully we are in the last house before the snap, In very severe conditions as we switch to digital voice over fibre rather than copper and if the mobile networks fall over so does all comms. RAYNET might become more important.
PS Day 5 with no mains - but I’m getting better at maintaining a small single cylinder engine!
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I had mains back Monday night, so just 3 days for me! As for engines, I had a choice of three, one modern & two vintage. Didn’t use any in the end!
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Nobody, but nobody is prepared to pay for resilience. Sadly resilience for complex data networks costs a metric shedload more than for a Strowager switched voice only landline phone network. People want gbps of data and are all in a race to the bottom for cheapest service when there is competition.
Still switch to full VOIP (available now on Virgin) instead of a parallel network of POTS + cable internet should cause the cost of telephone service to drop by 95%. Sadly Virgin (aka Liberty Media) are not offering a reduction in line rental so there is no desire on my part to get a new router that supports VOIP.
Yes, very little damage to the sites & equipment but its the wide area mains fails. Batteries may only last 4 - 8 hours. Not enough sites have a standby diesel, because of cost. Its not just the cost of the generator sets, but the cost of security to stop the Transit van and caravan brigade nicking them!
Airwave sites are much less power hungry, many have little LPG generators built into cabin.
Events like this are good for getting the bean counters to release funds for these investments! But its never enough.
73 Gavin (= busy!)
GM0GAV
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