Safe Luxury

How safe is using a Digital Phone line during a storm?

Like the phone lines that come bundled in with internet and cable. I'm a Uverse customer using VOIP but not sure about the phones safety during thunderstorms. I also use a headset attached to the phone and the entire system is connected by a surge protector.

Public Comments

1. Surge protectors are design to confront fluctuations with the man made electrical systems. So unless somebodies life depends on that call its a better idea NOT to use a phone line (or whats on the end of it) as a million volts is little more than what surge protectors are designed for.
2. I would say Uverse would be safer than using a standard POTS line in a storm.. 1. Uverse uses a fiber optic drop wire from the terminal to your home - fiberoptic does not conduct electricity, as the copper wiring in a POTS line does... 2. the ONT is in front of your inside wiring - if anything were to be "hit" with the surge of lightning, the ONT would get fried before anything else (highly unlikely that even this would happen) is your phone cord connected to the surge protector? if just the power is connected to the surge protector and not the phone line, then their is no protection against a surge of power coming down the line and thru the phone ... you do not have to worry about any of this if you use a cordless phone, regardless what type of phone service that you have..