The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has a web page that talks about the availability of telephone service during emergencies. Short of getting an Amateur Radio license and joining SHARES[1], there are some things anyone can do to prepare.
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The Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation and the Department of Telecommunications and Cable urge residents to take pre-emptive measures this National Hurricane Preparedness Week (May
7-13) to ensure readiness during emergency situations or power outages impacting their communications services.Different services (for example, traditional wireline phone, wireless, or VOIP provided over telephone or cable companies' networks) have different capabilities in emergencies or power outages. If you do not know what type of service you have, contact your provider.
Traditional Landline (Home phone, provided by a telephone company such as Verizon or Comcast):
During a power outage, traditional landline service that runs over a copper network will continue to operate. However, phone service over fiber (from your cable company, or Verizon FiOS) will not, and require batteries to continue operating during an outage (see VOIP below). Keep a traditional corded phone for outages. Without power, a cordless phone will not work.
- For those whom are curious about SHARES and/or Amateur Radio: