Modern telephone services will not operate without power. This was not true with historical "copper land line" telephones. Today, all electronic components associated with your telephone line now require battery backup or they will stop operation during a power outage. This has become less important with the pervasiveness of cellular phones, which usually continue working during a traditional power outage, and can therefore be used in an emergency.
It is still very important to understand:
IF ANY EQUIPMENT LOSES POWER, OUR TELEPHONE SERVICES WILL NOT WORK, INCLUDING 911 AND ANY HOME, SECURITY OR MEDICAL MONITORING THAT RELIES ON OUR TELEPHONE SERVICE.Velocity telephone and Gigabit Minnesota have battery backup available for purchase, for any components we provide for telephone service. It is complicated to identify, relocate and add battery backup to all, or the fewest required, components needed to continue telephone service in a power outage.
A technician can come and assess and install battery backup units for a $100 service trip charge within our direct service areas. Each 8-hour battery backup unit is $9.95/month and depending on the situation multiple or many units may be required. Each additional 8 hours of backup time is 9.95/month per backup unit.
Wireless home telephones have batteries in the handsets, but not in the base unit, so wireless handsets do not work in a power outage without an additional battery backup. If you have our battery backup service, we will supply a new battery every 4 years and we will service issues that are brought to our attention while you maintain that battery service.
TESTING
If you have telephone battery backup on your home telephone line, the most rigorous test you can perform is to turn off your homes main breaker and test making calls to your cell phone. If all your equipment is localized to a single room you can turn off the breakers to that room. Testing by unplugging your battery backup units from the wall, or by turning off a single breaker, will test that the batteries are functioning, but will not uncover if someone has added a critical network component that is not properly on battery backup outside of that area.
GIGABIT MN FIBER
If you have Gigabit MN fiber and wish to have emergency telephone on battery backup, it usually takes one to five battery backup units to enable 8 hours of phone service depending on your network layout. Typical components that may need backup power include: the ONT (outside on the wall), switch, router, ATA and wireless phone.
DSL
If you have VOIP telephone over a DSL line it usually takes one to four battery backup units to enable 8 hours of phone service depending on your network layout. Typical components that may need backup power include: DSL Router, switch, ATA and wireless phone.
BUSINESS PHONE
For business phones to operate during a power outage all components in the entire network must continue operating. This usually means the implementation of a backup power generator for the office. Contact your sales rep or IT firm to discuss your needs.
To discuss a need or schedule an assessment call:
Velocity Support: 763-222-1000
Gigabit MN Support: 651-888-4444