It seems fibre optic didn't do well in the Qld floods. Considering they are using the same cable to replace the old and more reliable phone system in flooding, it left many people without communication except for their mobiles!
While someone has suggested most people have cordless phones these days which require power (also useless if power is lost but not so much a problem of flooding) some oldies would still have the old phones or still have one in case of a power blackout. They would be rendered useless if fibre optic cable goes down in a flood.
An excerpt from the article below:
" NORTH Queensland was plunged into 24 hours of telecommunications chaos after two major fibre optic cables providing Telstra services were severed by floods in the south.
Mobile, landline and internet services ground to a halt after a back-up cable was damaged by floodwaters north of Harlin, west of Caboolture, about 5pm on Sunday."
