Abstract: A method and apparatus for detecting a power outage within an energy meter and alerting a remote central computer about the outage using call-in reporting via modem (35) within the meter to a telephone number designated for outage reporting. A primary battery cell or pack (55) is placed inside the meter (40) to operate the modem (35) when line power is lost. The modem (35) switches from a line power source in the meter (40) to the battery source (55) when an outage is detected and is to be reported to the remote central computer as an outage call. The battery source (55) is switched off when the outage is completed or aborted. The number of retries to call to report the power outage and the time period between retries is programmable.

Abstract: A method and apparatus to detect off-hook and intrusion conditions on a telephone line. A voltage to frequency converter is used to convert the voltage measured between the TIP and RING terminals of a telephone line to a frequency. The voltage is continuously monitored, once during each sample period. The measured frequency is compared to predetermined threshold values to determine the state of the telephone line. The predetermined threshold values are updated in each sample period.