Cell phones require power. In a prolonged power outage (or in the case of my daughter, even a five minute one), I can't gaurantee there will even be a working c

Cell phones require power. In a prolonged power outage (or in the case of my daughter, even a five minute one), I can't gaurantee there will even be a working cell phone on the premises. Wi-Fi won't work, and the femtocell won't work, either. In my experience in a ice storm with long lasting effects, the days when all landlines were adequately powered from a central office are long gone. Your local box's smallish battery will run out no longer than a day or two (others in this discussion say 12 hours), at which time you're better off having a cell phone, which you can arrange to power in a variety of ways. And I'm appalled that after my mother switched to U-verse DSL, her home telecom is now powered through a UPS supplied by AT&T. If you take no preparations, though, you're better off with a landline. If you're paranoid like me and my family, you have both, I pay ~$12/month for a Consumer Cellular (AT&T MVNO that doesn't suck) candybar that stays off the air most of the time, and is priceless even at 25 cents/minute in emergencies.