John Faithfull 🌍πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡ΊπŸ΄σ §σ ’σ ³σ £σ ΄σ ΏπŸ§‘βœŠπŸ»βœŠπŸΏ
Feasgar math! Power just back on after 65 hours with no electricity in Bunessan. πŸ₯³πŸ’ƒπŸ•Ί. Mobile network went down too, so no phone or internet, TV or radio either. Formerly, the old copper phone network kept going during such power outages. But the glorious age of fibre has put paid to that. 😬 Obv. the fibre internet is great, but the promised power resilience is non existent. Ho hum . #StormAmy
Oct 6, 2025 at 11:33amWeb
Show threadPeter BrownOct 6, 2025
@FaithfullJohn when we had the big storm in Barra about 15 years ago mobiles were down and all television and radio was down but the landline kept operating.
If landlines are vulnerable as well, then we have made a step backwards, not forwards. Their resilience was first compromised about 25 years ago when the fuel tanks for the generators at each telephone exchange were reduced in size from three weeks to 1 week resilience.
We are slowly creating the prerequisites for a return to the Stone Age.
Show threadJohn Faithfull 🌍πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡ΊπŸ΄σ §σ ’σ ³σ £σ ΄σ ΏπŸ§‘βœŠπŸ»βœŠπŸΏOct 6, 2025
@peterbrown Exactly. My mum lived here from 1950, on and off until the early 2000s, and had a phone most of that time. Electricity only arrived ca. 1974. But generally the copper phone line worked fine, even when mains electricity was down. We are definitely building more fragile systems in so many areas of life... ☹️
Show threadPeter BrownOct 6, 2025
@FaithfullJohn as soon as I can organise it I want to install solar panels with batteries which means I’m effectively self-contained. But if the communication services can’t get the act together to improve their resilience, it will be a pyrrhic victory.
Show threadJohn Faithfull 🌍πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡ΊπŸ΄σ §σ ’σ ³σ £σ ΄σ ΏπŸ§‘βœŠπŸ»βœŠπŸΏOct 6, 2025
@peterbrown Vodaphone and O2/Giffgaff went down 15 mins after the power cut. Even driving to other mobile masts made no difference. However, apparently Ee seemed to keep going for the entire 65 hours. This has been noticed before in the Ross of Mull, but the situation for different providers may be different eslewhere. Find the best local provider and get a wee battery powered 4G LTE broadband router + the cheapest sim you can get...
Show threadLilly HunterOct 6, 2025
@FaithfullJohn 65 hours! Did you at least have some kind of camp stove so you could make yourself a cup of tea?
Show threadJohn Faithfull 🌍πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡ΊπŸ΄σ §σ ’σ ³σ £σ ΄σ ΏπŸ§‘βœŠπŸ»βœŠπŸΏOct 6, 2025
@LaChasseuse We were fine: wood stove, and backup Calor gas cooker. Power cuts are common here esp. in winter. But 65 hours is exceptionally long one. This was the first one I'd experienced since the phone system switched from the old copper analog system to digital. The complete lack of *any* ability to communicate or get information was new!
Show threadLilly HunterOct 6, 2025
@FaithfullJohn Maybe it's a good idea to learn morse code - I saw someone suggesting one can use a mirror to send messages using morse.
Show threadStuart SwalesOct 8, 2025
@FaithfullJohn Couldn't raise a fibre broadband fault here until I got the power back! Just back online 40mins ago. Of course it was a tree...