This does bring up a hardware design question...I'm wondering how difficult of an engineering/marketing problem it would be to design VoIP adapters with built-in backup batteries. How does the power consumption profile of a VoIP adapter compare to, say, a cellphone? What would this add to the cost of the device, and how long could the battery last?
Funny you should ask. POTS phones used to contain their own batteries, but in the mid-1890s they switched to the current system that powers the phone from the central office because maintaining the batteries was a logistical nightmare. I realize that things have advanced a little in the past century, but my UPS still needs new batteries every year. Since VoIP adapters have to power POTS phones, their power needs are going to be those of POTS phones rather than cell phones, and that means the battery has to provide enough power to make the phone ring. It's a fairly important part of the cableco system that their adapter with the batteries is on the outside of the house so they can send guys around to replace the batteries without the subscribers' help. I don't see how it'd ever be practical to get users of parasitic VoIP to maintain their batteries since they'd only notice that the batteries had failed when the power was out. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies", Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://iecc.com/johnl, Mayor "I dropped the toothpaste", said Tom, crestfallenly.