Thursday, October 28, 2010

US Views on Battery Backup for Telecommunications

Stephen Conroy, Minister for Communications as stated that the Government has instructed the national broadband network that battery back-up will be mandatory. The units installed in Tasmanian homes so far have provision for a battery providing four hours of operation. It is not clear if, or when, the batteries will be installed.

The California Public Utilities Commission looked at the issue in detail in in Decision 08-09-014 September 4, 2008. The Commission looked at three options:
  1. No backup requirement.
  2. Four hours.
  3. Eight hours.
It should be noted that this was four or eight hours of standby time, not talk time (that translates into about 30 minutes to one hour of talk time for a phone call). It was not clear to me if the commission made a decision on this, or what the decision was.

Following Hurricane Katrina, the US Federal Communications Commission determined (FCC 07-177, October 4, 2007), that telephone central offices must have a minimum 24 hours backup power and cell towers for mobile phones eight hours. However, it is not clear if this decision survived appeal.

No comments: