[larard]

I remember it clearly. It was the first evening of the Northeast Blackout of 2003 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Blackout_of_2003] and I was working in NYC.

My wife had gone to her parents, and I wanted to phone her to say that all was well. All the cellphone towers were either without power, or overloaded. But the good old payphones just kept working.

It really is useful that telcos maintained their own power network. I wonder if this is still the case?

[stretchwithme]

I think thats still true. if you have a landline, it will keep working when the power is out, as long as its not cordless