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gar187er
I DID this for a living
join:2006-06-24
Seattle, WA

gar187er to bemis

Member

to bemis

Re: [Connectivity] lose power, lose service?

no, unless the power supply has has a failure.

see post:

»Re: Storm Comng - What Backup DOes CC Have for Voice?

bemis
Premium Member
join:2008-07-18
united state

bemis

Premium Member

Thanks for the replies guys. I'll just chock this up to hurricane weirdness...

I haven't had a power failure since getting comcast... where I use this for work, this could be a bigger issue. I've always been able to keep going through multi-hour outages w/ FIOS.

beachintech
There's sand in my tool bag
Premium Member
join:2008-01-06

beachintech

Premium Member

If an internet connection is that important for work, I would suggest having a backup connection. My 4GLTE phone from verizon works great with a free hotspot app.
ExoticFish
join:2008-08-31
Zebulon, NC

ExoticFish

Member

I agree. Verizon is far more likely to have their cell towers up and running before Comcast gets a backup generator to run their network.

beachintech
There's sand in my tool bag
Premium Member
join:2008-01-06

beachintech

Premium Member

There are a lot of areas that rely on comcast or other cable co's to run verizons tower fiber connections over their networks.

Comcast won't send a tech out with a generator in a storm like this, so if its important you have to have backups.

bemis
Premium Member
join:2008-07-18
united state

bemis to beachintech

Premium Member

to beachintech
The funny thing is that the Comcast started as the backup... it proved reliable (with power up) and VZ FIOS raised their rate on me to where it was double the Comcast rate, so I decided to just stick it out w/ one provider.

Having the network up and running is critical to me doing my work, but doing my work is not critical... but I'd like to be able to handle different situations--a downed pole or set of lines will equally affect VZ FIOS or Comcast, so in that scenario my weak link is cables, nothing I can do there except go wireless. I guess for some reason I expected Comcast network to continue to operate during a power failure just like POTS and FIOS has done... I thought they supplied voltage to their nodes along the lines using DC power on the hardlines or something, but I guess not.

More than likely my backup from now on will be a cellular connection. I used Sprint 3G as the backup for years, worked fantastically... dumped it because it was $60/mo and I very rarely used it.

My situation is the equivalent of a town manager deciding to lay off firefighters because there haven't been any fires... I relied on not needing it, and when I needed it, there was no reserve.

SeaSeaTee5
join:2010-05-06
Maryland

SeaSeaTee5

Member

There is AC power on the mainlines, generated by power supplies which are connected to commercial power. Like other posters have said, there are battery backups at each power supply, in the event that commercial power goes out but sometimes they do fail. Normally there are a couple of hours of standby. Enough to get a generator deployed in normal circumstances.