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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Letters

When we lose the power to report a power cut

Power cables are attached to a farm in a remote area of Teesdale, England.
Power cables are attached to a farm in a remote area of Teesdale, England. Several thousand people in the north-east were without power more than a week after Storm Arwen battered parts of England and Scotland. Photograph: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images

Kwasi Kwarteng urged those still without electricity to call 105, the emergency power cut phone number (Report, 1 December). Perhaps he could explain how in the future, when BT has completed the conversion of the telephone network to an all-digital one, this will be possible when vast areas will be without mains power for days on end as now, and your telephone connection will depend on your broadband connection? Will BT still have battery or generator backup that keeps the current service working in power cuts? Will mobile phone stations have such emergency power backup on every facility? I have seen no answers to these questions.
Geoff Thomas
Merthyr Tudful

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