That's not really how phone lines work, unless the central office had its own issues. When you have a POTS (plain old telephone service) line at your house, that two-wire pair runs directly back to the central office where it gets switched to local, long distance, etc. So if you have dial tone, you're connected.

[–] ch00f@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I think the argument is that the connection between the central office and whatever long-distance hub was severed. This isn't depicted in the film, as they only show the tree falling nearby the house.