Will landline telephones work in a power cut ?

[adam2]

Two way radios could be useful, but are totally reliant on someone within range, on the same channel, and able to act on any urgent message.
Many suppliers offer PMR (Personal Mobile Radio) equipment at moderate prices. No licence is required.
If going down that route, I suggest radios that can take disposable AA cells, and not reliant on built in lithium batteries of unknown reliability.

[adam2]

I've been following Starlink closely for several years. Gimmick it is not, the technology works really well. It is a dramatically more efficient/effective way to provide reasonable global coverage.

Geostationary solutions offer trivial capacity, so prices will always be high to ration use. Starlink (and others) offer many orders of magnitude more capacity.

You may be correct, and are obviously better informed than I about Starlink.
But if I have understood correctly, the Starlink system requires a base unit with a continual electricity supply, a simple battery operated handset then connects to this base unit within any reasonable distance, this base unit then passes the signal to the satellite.

The more expensive Inmarsat system only requires a self contained handset that links directly to the satellite, nearly as simple as a standard cellphone.
I have used an Inmarsat telephone, when cellphone service was not available in the aftermath of a terrorist attack. It was very useful and the bill of over £50 for relatively brief use inconsequential in the circumstances.

[BritDownUnder]

Starlink is apparently 'taking off' in Australia in a big way, particularly on remote farms and cattle stations. Indeed it is better in rural areas due to the low density of users as there is some evidence in press articles here that users in towns are already overloading the system.

[adam2]

Here is a relevant thread on another forum, regarding the potential unavailability of modern telephones in a power failure.
https://www.blue-room.org.uk/topic/7553 ... provision/

[BritDownUnder]

Sometimes the old ways are the best ways.

This old video on YouTube tells you how phone systems with manual exchanges worked.

While doing a bit of research into crank phones I discovered the last crank phone party line public phone network in the US, in a remote part of Idaho, was only removed in 2021.

[mr brightside]

I remember when a young man from Bradford came to install my fibre optic, he didn't know that copper was live 50vdc. I asked him to isolate it and drop the tails off in the JB on the pole, but he didn't know what i was on about. I had to get my meter out and prove to him it was a live supply in the cable.