Originally Posted by Ron Bennett

Your cable guy is likely wrong in regards to short (under 4 hours), typical power failures. Many cell phone sites have battery backup to cover that and/or alternate nearby cell towers, even if it normally doesn't service to that area, can pick up the slack... When dialing 911, the cell phone and/or tower may boost power / handle lower than ideal signal strength to get the 911 call through.

An important caveat to that are people who live out in the country and/or only get connectivity from one cell phone site with seemingly no other towers anywhere in the vicinity.

On a related topic, while it's true that land lines are often functional during power failures, most people these days plug in phones that require external power, and have little to no battery backup capability - hence, even though the land line is live, still no phone service...

In short, if one is going to rely on a land line for emergencies, use a traditional corded phone, not a wireless set and/or answering machine combos.

Ron