Battle lines are being clearly drawn in the latest dustup between the FCC (News - Alert) and cellphone providers. The issue this time is backup power, and who is responsible for providing it.

In one corner is the FCC, maintaining that because traditional phone companies have always kept a phone line open even when power blackouts are rampant, they should continue to do so for cellphone users.

The cellular companies are balking, saying it’s not their responsibility, and the costs would be prohibitive.

In a recent online story at arstechnica.com by reporter Jon Brodkin, the case was spelled out: “While copper telephone lines can keep working through outages by drawing power from a telco’s central office, the old lines are going out of favor because they can’t provide Internet speeds as fast as cable or fiber,” Brodkin wrote. “Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone service delivered over the newer networks stops working as soon as the power goes out unless there is a battery backup in the customer's home.” As such, the FCC believes the providers should provide ongoing backup power as needed.

“As consumers transition from legacy copper loops to new technologies, it is important they continue to have reasonable CPE [customer premises equipment] backup power alternatives to support minimally essential residential communications, particularly access to emergency communications, during power outages,” the FCC said in defending its stance.

Naturally, the cellular providers believe their responsibility stops when the power does.

“They argue that consumers have willingly switched from copper landlines to VoIP service despite carriers being required to inform customers of the power limitations,” Brodkin wrote. “Customers are also increasingly using cellular service instead of landlines to make voice calls.”

An industry trade group weighed in as well, not surprisingly on the side of the cellphone providers.

“Mandating that providers of VoIP service provide all customers with battery-backup capability would impose an unnecessary and wasteful ‘battery tax’ on consumers,” the National Cable & Telecommunications Association argued in a filing with the FCC. “The better approach is for the Commission to work with VoIP providers on identifying network best practices and assisting with consumer education to ensure that all customers have the information they need to determine how best to stay connected when the power goes out.”

In other words, “Not our issue; not our problem.” Stay tuned for updates.