Comment Re:VOIP sucks. (Score 1) 426
His home VOIP fails in a power outage because the handset (and router) doesn't have power backup. If he uses uninterruptible power supplies on his home infrastructure then he'll still have VOIP when the power goes out (for as long as the backup power lasts).
The kind of infrastructure that backbone VOIP uses, and believe me many/most cell towers are ALREADY using VOIP for a backbone, has the kind of backup power support that would keep it up in the case of a power failure. If your phone company's POTS switch loses power it's going down too - and they know that so they have backup power solutions in place for that eventuality. Once the traffic is on the wire it's all pretty much the same stuff - wires, switches, routers. And an electrical infrastructure that includes redundancy.
You can even transmit power over Ethernet too, if you want to.