I read this and got a giggle. Good one ByOhTek.
I used to work for Bell Labs in the messaging division (the team which created Audix, Conversant, and later Anypath), and we worked very closely with the folks who created the switches which run in those "Central Offices" with labels like AT&T, Verizon, SBC, etc., some of which have stood since before AT&T was split up into the baby-Bells. Let me say that those systems most definitely require power to even continue routing a call. Not only do those circuits (which are the FXS end of a FXS/FXO interface) provide the voltages for off hook detection, ringing (generally 90VAC at 20Hz, which as someone says elsewhere, has a bite), but they almost always handle the conversion of the analog signal from your phone line to a digital format (of 64Kbits/sec, since it is sampled at 8 bits/sample 8000 times a second) passed around the network, before even routing your call to the circuitry handling your next door neighbour's line. They use Signaling System 7 (SS7) to communicate between switches, and sometimes even within the same switch, as well as to other devices, such as voice mail systems. But even in the days of the old mechanical relay switches (which I got to see as a kid... my neighbour worked for what used to be GTE, maintaining the switches in SE Ohio), the COs would have lots and lots and LOTS of 48V batteries to not only provide those voltages still provided today, but to also move those relays with the click-click-click which was always audible (and driven by the pulses of the old rotary dial phones). One reason for why most COs have diesel generators (right along with running the cooling which is necessary at a CO).
So, yes, blackouts are anticipated and handled by the phone companies at the CO. Most folks just have not gotten used to the magic which went on behind the curtain/wire to provide that dialtone whenever the handset was lifted from the cradle. And so, they get scared when they hear about things like needing a UPS at home for phone over FiOS, Cable, or whatever.
Want to learn more... start with the O'Reilly book on Asterisk (the "starfish" book), and then look for things like "Lucent 5ESS" or "Lucent 7R/E" (where some of my team mates came from).
As for the fine article (which I will admit I have yet to read, but will be reading tonight)... given the fact that in all but very rare cases, once your call reaches a CO, it is in digital format, being transmitted around the rest of the network, there is no reason that they cannot switch all but the last mile to VoIP. But the B**** is going to be in the details, as it will require IPv6 (which will also allow them to locate you geographically), and the Telco's will have to provide some sort of dual-service transport or gateway between the current protocols and the VoIP protocols. Probably even more of a pain than the conversion from IPv4 to IPv6. So yea... I suspect that it will be a very long time in the doing.
Oh... and at folks like BubbaDave... you can get decent quality VoIP for data rates available on a good dialup. It can take as little as 8Kbps to do VoIP, and 16-32Kbps with good quality is possible (which is less than the current 64Kbps needed today). But I doubt you will be seeing that at your house until they get fairly far along the conversion. And they can also just drop a T1 line to your house to route things to your CO. Pretty much any phone line could be switched over to T1... the TELCOs just charge way too much for them, since they normally route the T1s through the CO to other providers, which means they have to provision a larger uplink to the network. (The CO where I grew up still uses copper to link to the next CO, and a T1 for my network there was going to be so expensive because it would use up a existing uplink channel, which they did not like).