Hello!

I wanted to create this post to see if I can get an answer, as google seems to give mixed results. This winter, I was thinking of getting a small generator incase our power goes out. We live in a rural area, so I have propane for heat, but was more worried about keeping devices charged and some lights.

I was curious if we had a power outage, if I powered my modem- would I still be able to have internet access? We have Xfinity but I wasn’t sure if there is a total power outage, if the internet would go down either until the local system is brought back up or if it had batteries/self generators so the network stays up during an outage.

  • tomxp411@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    My experience has been:

    • Coax connections will just stop. These rely on boosters and repeaters that are powered by the grid.
    • Cable TV will work for an hour or two.
    • VoIP phones will last until the UPS battery dies.
    • Cellular will work, but will be bogged down and possibly revert to older, slower modes.

    So your cellular hotspot is your best bet during a regional power outage, but be aware that even this will be slower than normal and may even stop working after hours or days, as cell sites lose backup power.