Surge protector with telephone protection - hard to find?

[L555BAT]

The telephone circuit on my previous Masterplug one blew in a recent storm, saving the modem-router one last time. Our house is in an exposed location, several miles from the exchange (overhead wires).

Maybe 5 years ago when I bought a few for myself and recommended to family and friends, there were plenty of options around that had telephone protection with 6 sockets.

That doesn't seem to be the case now. None listed by Belkin or Masterplug. APC have only one of their models in stock, and Amazon/Argos have a few Masterplug big/tower ones. Currys have nothing.

Has something changed that has rendered these obsolete?

[Who me ?]

possibly lack of interest.
But first of all - did the damage come in from mains power ,or BT line.
Plenty of computer power leads protectors on market. Problem is BT line as strike that may not affect phone might kill modems etc.
BT lines used to have protection, but then I've seen phones in the area of the Scotsburgring melted in a strike , even with multiple protection.
Good place to look is https://www.shop.bt.com/category/cables-and-adapte...

[L555BAT]

Given that the telephone circuit on the protector blew, and the modem is still fine, I conclude that it came in on the BT line.

Even the BT shop doesn't have one with telephone protection. Well, the notebook one would do but I'd need to plug it in to the mains with a cloverleaf cable so it has somewhere to dump any incoming surge on the phone line.

So I guess you all in built up areas get away without them. Without one, I'd be going through a handful of modem-routers every year!

I've found this standalone one but it's not cheap at £27: http://www.apc.com/shop/uk/en/products/APC-Protect...