Publicly Available Telephone Services (PATS) means a service available to the public for originating and receiving national and international calls and access to emergency services through a telephone number or numbers in a national or international telephone numbering plan, and may, where relevant, also include one or more of the following:
(a) operator assistance, (b) directory assistance facilities, (c) directories, (d) pay telephones, (e) service under special terms, (f) specific facilities for end-users with a disability or with special social needs, and (g) non-geographic services
Resilience A plain old telephone service has high reliability and is unlikely to be affected by local power outages. More modern systems require battery back-up to guard against local power outages. The United Kingdom telephone regulator, Ofcom, has published a guidance note for telephone service providers: "Protecting access to emergency organisations when there is a power cut at the customer’s premises".
See also Common carrier Plain old telephone service Public switched telephone network
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