A satellite phone is certainly a possibility but rather expensive.

AJJewsbury said:

and all the gubbins between exchange and home seems to be entirely optical and passive and so don't need any power

Yes, but indoors the optical network termination needs a power supply, so as you say if you have some form of UPS, you may be all right. I wonder whether a proper old-fashioned telephone with dial and bells (or even a passive push-button one) would work with this kit?

I wonder whether a proper old-fashioned telephone with dial and bells (or even a passive push-button one) would work with this kit?

Seemingly they don't support LD (pulse) dialling any more (although that can be worked around with a converter box - e.g. https://www.vintagetelephony.co.uk/product/pulse-to-tone-converter-dial-a-tone-dialatone) Newer POTS features like SMS from a landline seem also to be going and  there doesn't seem to be a fix for that.

   - Andy.

3G is being turned off within the near future.

Rather oddly, 3G will almost certainly go before 2G in many areas - mainly as there are a lot of devices with a built in GSM phone that cannot easily be changed - such mundane items as automated bus stop signs, vending machines and a number of earlier portable payment devices.  The much larger cell ranges and resistance to jamming make 2G very attractive as a last ditch comms compared to the higher data rates but lest robust nature of the more recent offerings.

There is an OFCOM  plan to turn off 2G at some point after 2033 - while 3G is going to be knocked off, at least in Plymouth and Basingstoke, early next year and I suspect other places will follow in short order.
www.ofcom.org.uk/.../3g-switch-off

Mike.

According to Vodafone, they are beginning in Plymouth and Basingstoke in Feb and will have finished switching off 3G by Dec.

I don't need data and seldom send texts so it will not bother me, but I might have to get a new phone at some stage.

Well I am probably stuffed when they turn off 4G. Living near the top of a hill with no higher ground for over 30 miles in a 180 degree arc from South to North, which includes Chester, Liverpool and the Wirral, in a 30 minute period with my phone stationary on a table I had 20 cell transfers, 90% of the time the signal strength was low with 5% medium and 5% high.I can see over 12  5G towers all of which at various times (while the phone is stationary) are less than -115dBm.  I regularly get dropped calls or I cant hear the other person or they cannot hear me plus the normal partially dropped. I get over 8 4G cells which I am often connected to. While monitoring my signal during the 30 minute period I got  lots of low signal strength warnings of less than -117 dBm.

My daughter lives in a small town and commented that a couple of years ago while on a trip to Central America she could get a 5G signal in a field in the middle of nowhere in Guatemala but cannot get any signal in her own home unless she  goes into the upstairs back bedroom. 

I have asked neighbours what provider they are with and their experiences and all have the same problem irrespective of provider. 

All this in an area that the coverage maps say we should get a good 5G signal indoors.

VOIP and WiFi seems to be the stock answer for poor reception in homes.

At my place in France, in the middle of nowhere and half way up a mountainside I get full 100% 4G signal.

However, at home in the UK I get 20% signal at best and if I happen to walk from the kitchen to the dinning room in the middle of the house during a call the signal drops out to zero. I rely heavily on my phone's wifi calling feature! 

Yes, but indoors the optical network termination needs a power supply, so as you say if you have some form of UPS, you may be all right.

It seems that BT has a battery option for their ONT (Fibre interface box) - and you can connect a conventional phone direct to the ONT. https://www.openreach.com/content/dam/openreach/openreach-dam-files/images/news-and-opinion/articles/2018/02/ONT%20Factsheet.pdf

The problem seems to be that the battery only last for a short time (tens of minutes) so is useless for longer power cuts (as often happens after major storms, or as in my case when the old PILC cable in the street went phut) - so failing to provide a proper means of being able to make emergency phone calls during a power cut.

So as a minimum could we have a small battery (perhaps kept charged while the power is on, or just a simple long-life battery) which was available, but not actually used immediately the power fails - and then the procedure for making an emergency call using a conventional corded phone during a power cut would be 1) throw a switch to connect the battery, 2) wait for the ONT to re-establish a connection with the exchange, 3) dial as normal.

   - Andy.

Quite pertinent to this discussion is this recent article published in E and T  where telecoms operators are asking to be spared from power cuts.. Almost as if they would like to transfer their cost saving failure to install adequate  battery backup into the power company's problem. Perhaps a bit of early blame storming.*

I think the performance will probably be disappointing, given the way that ROTA cuts work by blacking out a whole area  - just leaving power on to base of the mast or the comms cabinet with the rest of the district in blackout, is not really an option, unless the comms company has installed a dedicated power cable for themselves, or perhaps paid the DNO for an extra one, as of course they did in the era of the traditional analogue phone. (the analogue telephones had banks of batteries at the exchange to power the lines, and in many cases redundant mains supplies to charge those batteries as well, and in other locations there were generators. )

Mike

* much as the old put down, "your lack of planning does not make it my emergency." and similar.