A mobile phone is now a must

Our house has a lift originally installed for disabled use.

In the "old days" of land lines and ADSL, the lift telephone continued to work in a power blackout as did all fixed line telephones.

Now with the arrival of NBN broadband, our home and lift telephone will not operate in a power failure.

I wonder how many of our Peninsula residents who do not have a mobile phone realise they are cut off in the event of a power failure if they have NBN.

The reason is that most NBN connections on the Peninsula are "fibre to the node" and the nodes do not have a backup power facility.

This is a serious matter particularly for any elderly and disabled people who may have a health or any other emergency during a blackout.

The only solution is a mobile phone.

This is now a must for NBN households.

For those without a mobile, I recommend buying the cheapest phone for the cheapest plan.

Use it only for emergencies.

Do not tell others the number.

Do not answer if it rings and leave it charging.

Email, 24 Aug 2018

John Taylor, Woy Woy