Finally: *actual* broadband, but at what price?

From the front of today's Sunday Star Times, "$1.4b Telecom upgrade has 111 power cut peril". Telecom is planning on rolling out, over the next five years, significant upgrades to its fixed-line network which will enable us to finally have broadband that is above the third-world levels we currently experience. One of the problems though is that the lines will terminate at the user's end in a device which requires power. What this means is that you won't be able to do anything with your phone line if the power is out -- you won't even be able to make emergency calls. Knowing how unreliable power supply in this country is, Telecom will have a hard time convincing the public that implementing this system won't result in an inability to make a phone call when someone's life depends on it.