<i>Cell phones require power. In a prolonged power outage (or in the case of my daughter, even a five minute one), I can&#x27;t gaurantee there will even be a working cell phone on the premises. Wi-Fi won&#x27;t work, and the femtocell won&#x27;t work, either.</i><p>In my experience in a ice storm with long lasting effects, the days when all landlines were adequately powered from a central office are long gone.  Your local box&#x27;s smallish battery will run out no longer than a day or two (others in this discussion say 12 hours), at which time you&#x27;re better off having a cell phone, which you can arrange to power in a variety of ways.  And I&#x27;m appalled that after my mother switched to U-verse DSL, her home telecom is now powered through a UPS supplied by AT&amp;T.<p>If you take no preparations, though, you&#x27;re better off with a landline.  If you&#x27;re paranoid like me and my family, you have both, I pay ~$12&#x2F;month for a Consumer Cellular (AT&amp;T MVNO that doesn&#x27;t suck) candybar that stays off the air most of the time, and is priceless even at 25 cents&#x2F;minute in emergencies.