Gillibrand: Earthquake Exposes Cellphone Problems

[cal04]

http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2011/08/23/gillibrand-quake-exposes-cellphone-problems/

New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said the East Coast earthquake Tuesday is another sign that U.S. cellphone networks are still not prepared for a major catastrophe, nearly a decade after the Sept. 11 attacks.

From Washington, D.C. to New York City and elsewhere, untold numbers of people could not make calls on their cellphones Tuesday in the immediate aftermath of the quake. The mobile phone networks were so overcrowded that the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued a statement asking the public not to use their cellphones to make calls, suggesting that email or text messages be used instead.

Shortly before that request was made, a spokesman for Verizon said there was “some network congestion for some customers as a result of spikes in calling in parts of the East for a short time after the tremors.” But the spokesman added that the system “has been returning to normal quickly now that the tremors have ended.”

(snip)
“We saw once again that cellphone service cannot be relied upon in the event of a major crisis,” Gillibrand said Tuesday. “Congress must act quickly to give our first responders the communications tools needed to handle a major national emergency and save lives.’’

[PoliticAverse]

1. That's why most first responders have radios. n/t

[Warpy]

2. Funny, people on their Blackberrys and other handheld gadgets

were the first to post about having their teeth rattled today.

[Donnachaidh]

3. after the Northridge quake cell phones were down for days

Landlines and internet fared far better.

Just the overload factor can blow out cells in emergencies.

[BiggJawn]

4. The Cellphone networks will *NEVER* be ready.

If the event doesn't take out the infrastructure, you've got 1,250,000 people all calling each other going "WTF was THAT???".

That's why there's Ham Radio.

[Stargazer09]

6. Like they say...

When all else fails, amateur radio will save the day. :)

[BiggJawn]

7. And you know it....

:fistbump:

[freeplessinseattle]

5. makes me glad I decided to keep my landline

I had almost decided to cancel it to save some much needed $, but can't quite bring myself to. May be glad I did someday...

[eggplant]

8. We keep two landlines

The second is a leftover from the says of dialup, but we find it so useful we can't bring ourselves to drop it. Cell service here sucks. We use a microcell, but it is subject to the whims of our DSL service, which frequently dies at the first hint of a storm.

All but two of our handsets are hardwired, too. That became less important after we got the generator, tho. We're fairly disaster-proof (so far). We survived on our generator for 80 hours during the killer ice storm in the northeast a few winters back. With the exception of the dairy farms up the road, we were the only ones with power, water (wells around here), phone, internet, and satellite tv. It was like living on the moon.

Infrastructure matters.

[freeplessinseattle]

9. Sometimes old school can't be beat!:)

bet I'd become popular fast in case of emergency. I used to have dial up too, and just felt like it might be a good idea to keep it just in case, because of course once I cancelled it, I'd need it, like when I regretted cancelling AAA. Don't want to jinx Seattle and cause an earthquake, of course.