Jo and Rachel will have to forgive Barbara's smug grin (or not).

"Satellites. There seem to be fewer portal incidents as altitude above ground increases. Not entirely sure why, but it's left most of the satellite network in place. And since most of those things are designed to stay up for years they tend to work."

She frowns slightly, "And there's some landlines still in place, just not many. They're hard to patch into since most of the exchanges are down too."