Potential power outages this winter

Loagi said:
For 4g masts the number that have emergency power is quite 'shocking' ! This is from a 2019 ofcom report,

"Both EE and Three have 6 hours or more of
back-up power at around 3% of their sites. EE
has a further 4% of sites which can continue
operating for five days or more during a
power cut. The vast majority have no back-up
power"


"Of the sites which Vodafone
provides, which broadly speaking cover the
west of England and Wales, around half have
four hours of back-up power. The remaining
Vodafone sites have between 1 and 2 hours.
O2 protects its hub sites, which account for
about 5% of its total sites, with 4 hours of
back-up power. Most of its remaining sites
have no protection, with an unspecified
number of larger coverage sites having 10
minutes."

Those numbers are really quite grim.
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Get ready lads...
We're gonna have to talk to her for 3 hours :eek:
 
Loagi said:
For 4g masts the number that have emergency power is quite 'shocking' ! This is from a 2019 ofcom report,

"Both EE and Three have 6 hours or more of
back-up power at around 3% of their sites. EE
has a further 4% of sites which can continue
operating for five days or more during a
power cut. The vast majority have no back-up
power"


"Of the sites which Vodafone
provides, which broadly speaking cover the
west of England and Wales, around half have
four hours of back-up power. The remaining
Vodafone sites have between 1 and 2 hours.
O2 protects its hub sites, which account for
about 5% of its total sites, with 4 hours of
back-up power. Most of its remaining sites
have no protection, with an unspecified
number of larger coverage sites having 10
minutes."

Those numbers are really quite grim.
Click to expand...
I suppose it depends during blackouts if communication infrastructure is prioritised for energy.
 
mattyfez said:
I doubt it, but there's nothing to say your nearest mast is in the same zone as the rolling power outages.. So 4g/5g might well still work fine but pot luck depending where your masts are I guess
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But other infrastructure in the backhaul or to the site(s) you are trying to access may or may not have power/backup.
 
darael said:
I considered a UPS, but I don't think it wouldn't help keep my Virgin Media SuperHub connected if power to the street cabinets was also cut. I do know that some of VM's cabinets have battery backup, but not all.

In all fairness, minimal internet usage would be possible by using my phone as a hotspot. I also have a laptop which be fine for basic games, watching movies on and the odd internet use.
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I’ve been reading about this and fibre connections are not usually disrupted during power cuts so assuming you’re FTTH then it should be still working in a power cut as long as you can power the router.
 
delta0 said:
I’ve been reading about this and fibre connections are not usually disrupted during power cuts so assuming you’re FTTH then it should be still working in a power cut as long as you can power the router.
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Our local exchange on the BT side still operated when the mains cable was severed a few months back. The Sky part of the site lost power.
 
was the green style forum part of an OC power failure trial run, like other organisations are being reminded to check out any mechanisms they have and stock up diesel for generators.
(amazon / netflix / twitter / cloudflare ... data centres )

I'd read backup on telecom companies - 4g ... are for aperiodic failure, if it's a regular/recurring failure you need to ensure any backup batteries have time to be recharged.
 
delta0 said:
I’ve been reading about this and fibre connections are not usually disrupted during power cuts so assuming you’re FTTH then it should be still working in a power cut as long as you can power the router.
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Large parts of the fibre network are passive but they still rely on the ONT in the cabinets or exchanges to remain powered. It's very unlikely that they will have battery or generator backups. You could even find that the ONT are in a different service area so they go offline at different time slots to your home.

[Edit] Hadn't had my coffee when I made this comment, its the OLT in the cabinets. ONT is in your own home :)
 
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ci_newman said:
Large parts of the fibre network are passive but they still rely on the ONT in the cabinets or exchanges to remain powered. It's very unlikely that they will have battery or generator backups. You could even find that the ONT are in a different service area so they go offline at different time slots to your home.
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That’s interesting. So in theory there would be a reasonable chance that mobile Internet could be available at times when fibre is not and vice versa.
 
I have invested in a UPS which I have connected to my home wireless, and Nas. There should be enough juice for about 3 hours. The NAS is my Plex server so at least we can watch some movie on the laptop if there is a blackout...

We also have a couple of Hue lights with batteries in them, which should last 2.5 to 3 hours, again if there is a power cut, so could read too, though if we turn the intensity down we can get up to 12 hours.

That is about as far as I am going on an 'unlikely but possible' event.
 
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martin363 said:
I have invested in a UPS which I have connected to my home wireless, and Nas. There should be enough juice for about 3 hours. The NAS is my Plex server so at least we can watch some movie on the laptop if there is a blackout...

We also have a couple of Hue lights with batteries in them, which should last 2.5 to 3 hours, again if there is a power cut, so could read too, though if we turn the intensity down we can get up to 12 hours.

That is about as far as I am going on an 'unlikely but possible' event.
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That must be some seriously beefy UPS to run your router and NAS for 3 hours. Total draw must be ~ 100W?

However it's not likely to actually help you very much - based on the published plans most areas will have 2-3 3hr blackouts within a single 24 hour period. There won't be enough time between powercuts to recharge the UPS.
 
ci_newman said:
That must be some seriously beefy UPS to run your router and NAS for 3 hours. Total draw must be ~ 100W?

However it's not likely to actually help you very much - based on the published plans most areas will have 2-3 3hr blackouts within a single 24 hour period. There won't be enough time between powercuts to recharge the UPS.
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Nothing like 100w. The Synology NAS draws about 20w when running Plex, and 6w when idle. The Deco Wifi unit seems to draw a max of 6w. Add 4w for inefficiencies and I reckon we are at about 30w. Nothing like for example an idling PC would draw.
 
martin363 said:
Nothing like 100w. The Synology NAS draws about 20w when running Plex, and 6w when idle. The Deco Wifi unit seems to draw a max of 6w. Add 4w for inefficiencies and I reckon we are at about 30w. Nothing like for example an idling PC would draw.
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My Western digital NAS is 10W when in use.
 
In hindsight I hope it does happen so I can hear all the tears of the millennials upset about not having tik-tok or whatever crap they are glued to :)
 
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