Cox rep will discuss phone options for power outages

Some Laguna Beach residents were reminded last week of the fragility of communication lines during a power outage.

About 1,250 residents in an area near Agate, Catalina, and Thalia streets lost power the afternoon of Oct. 19 after an equipment failure, according to Southern California officials. The outage lasted about six hours.

The incident concerned Councilwoman Toni Iseman enough that she brought up the matter during the following evening’s council meeting.

“For those of us who think we are safe in a disaster because we have landlines, we are not safe unless you’ve got one that plugs into the wall,” Iseman told the council. “If we have a disaster [such as a power outage] and our cell sites are out, forget your iPhone. Forget your landline unless you’ve got one plugged into the wall.”

Disaster preparedness and response is an important topic for Laguna Beach residents who have endured flooding, mudslides and fires through the years.

Councilman Robert Zur Schmiede also said he was concerned. He said his manual dial rotary phone still worked, but there was uncertainty during the meeting as to whether other residents with similar hookups would maintain service.

Arrangements were made for a Cox Communications representative to advise residents at Tuesday’s council meeting of ways to keep phones working if electricity was lost and cell sites malfunctioned.

Cordless phones that use a charging station and are connected to an answering machine require electricity and thus would go dead during an outage, Cox spokesman Joe Camero wrote in an email.

Corded phones, in contrast, plug into wall jacks and are directly powered through telephone lines. These types of hookups “should” remain connected if electricity was lost, Camero said.

Cox customers can purchase a back-up battery for $25 if they subscribed to the company’s digital telephone service after Oct. 31, 2013. If they purchased a subscription before that date, Cox provided free batteries.

The batteries offer eight hours of standby service and up to four hours of talk time.

Factors such as the different types of phone lines, including telephone modems, and the year they were installed could factor into the best option for consumers, Gavin Curran, the city’s finance and industrial technology director, said.

“It’s not one-size-fits-all infrastructure,” Curran said.

Camero declined to say how many subscribers Cox has in Laguna Beach as the company is privately owned.

Residents with questions can call Cox’s residential line at (949) 240-1212.

AT&T offers wireless service, but not physical phone hookups in Laguna Beach, company spokeswoman Meredith Red wrote in an email.