Let's start with something simple
The universal service obligation.
The POTS wasn't fancy, but it worked. New smart meter exploded? Pick up the phone, call the fire brigade. Flood? Ditto. Hurricane? You might have to wait a day or two but the phone will probably be back on before the electricity is (sidenote: I was at a boarding school in West Sussex during the storm of 1987, the phones were back on the next day (mostly temporary wiring) while it took over a week for the electrics to be sorted; the 13 year old me was quite impressed by that).
Now? I'm running my Livebox from a dinky little Chinese 12V UPS because we have frequent brownouts due to the modern computerised agricultural equipment starting up bang on time, all at the same time... The lights dip, it doesn't faze the Pi and even the monitor can ride it out. But the Livebox? Rebooted Every. Single. Bloody. Time.
So it's now on a UPS which will run it for at least half an hour. To the point where there actually was a power cut one morning and I didn't realise until I got up to make my morning tea (Livebox, fine; El Reg, tablet, fine).
But for those who don't realise or understand, it'll seem a lot less reliable. Smart meter blew up? Flood? Other emergency? You might not have electricity and if you don't you don't have a phone service. Or if you suffer a brownout while on the phone to somebody while trying to cope with a cardiac arrest? You're looking at 2-3 minutes for the thing to reboot, plus starting the conversation all over again.
I think it should be an obligation for a telecoms provider to offer the option of an internet box with some sort of built in battery pack for a subsidised cost (say a one of €20 payment).
It's not impossible. My UPS has a bunch of 18650s inside plus charging and regulation circuitry (as it outputs 12V, 9V, and 5V USB). For an internet box, it might accept 12V but does it need it, or does it immediately step that down to 5V (USB) and 3.3V (everything else)? They'll know how it works and can design it accordingly.
Instead, the service obligation is getting thrown away with the excuse of "everybody has a mobile these days" and the internet hardware being offered is built to a specific budget, rarely (if ever) gets firmware updates, and is frequently depressingly bug ridden. A very good example of "offer the least you can and charge the most you can for it".