Emergency Phones: Landlines or Cell?
erco
Posts: 20,256
More & more people are ditching their landlines in favor of cellphones. Good idea or not?
I used to assume that after a major disaster (earthquake or hurricane) that if telephone coverage was interrupted, that landline repair would have priority over cell phone tower repair (which would be up to the numerous private carriers). Now I'm starting to wonder. Aren't there mobile emergency cell towers that can be deployed rapidly? Maybe swamped easily. We're keeping our landline for the foreseeable future at any rate.
Of course, if your phone is bundled with your TWC/Comcast cable & internet, it's a different story since you're not using the phone lines. Then there's Verizon FIOS, so who knows?
Anyone in or near a disaster area have any experience to relate? IIRC, Hanno was in NZ near a big quake this year.
I used to assume that after a major disaster (earthquake or hurricane) that if telephone coverage was interrupted, that landline repair would have priority over cell phone tower repair (which would be up to the numerous private carriers). Now I'm starting to wonder. Aren't there mobile emergency cell towers that can be deployed rapidly? Maybe swamped easily. We're keeping our landline for the foreseeable future at any rate.
Of course, if your phone is bundled with your TWC/Comcast cable & internet, it's a different story since you're not using the phone lines. Then there's Verizon FIOS, so who knows?
Anyone in or near a disaster area have any experience to relate? IIRC, Hanno was in NZ near a big quake this year.
Comments
Lost the land line on my last move. Didn't bother to get another one.
-Phil
"disintermediation", great, my new word of the day.
I have not seen a phone hanging off a wall socket since last century. I last saw a public telephone box about five years ago. It registered in my mind as it was being removed at the time.
The HAM radio is definitely the way to go. Never mind the license, in an emergency no one is going to worry you about that:)
They make it sound like they are doing you a favor.
The fact is all carriers are "Required" by federal regulations to transfer your phone number.
Duane J
Yes, the companies have mobile masts they an put up; they're often deployed for large events.
but... They will need prepared land-lines or other link to work.
Battery power is expensive. Most transmitters have 2Hours or less backup power.
Depending on importance, ease of accessibility and expected 'worst case' power interruption, it may even be as low as 30 minutes.
(Unless there's legislation in place, of course)
I KNOW this because last winter, a whole region in Norway was without power for an extended period during and after some really sh!tty weather, and GSM started dropping out...
Lets just say that a lot of satellite phones were sold afterwards.
Main phone witching centres have not only battery power, but also standby diesel-powered generators.
How many others also have generators also depends on their importance, the odds of protracted power-outs, how easily power or traffic can be rerouted.
If there's a massive failure in the cabling somewhere, the techs will fix 'internal infrastructure' first, then start on landlines in a prioritised order.
The lines connecting the cell towers to the switching centres is pretty high up on the internal infrastructure list. Individual homes are pretty low on the landlines list. (They will fix as many breaks as possible in one spot, before leaving for the next, if they believe they have time, though, so living near a hospital can be helpful. Town hall I'm not all that certain about... )
I have not had a landline for >10 years. It was a bit hard when we lived on the boat for a number of years, and we have just kept it that way since moving ashore.
In an emergency, I think the telcos will try and get mobile towers back first because they provide the biggest numbers for the simplest work.
I have an Amateur License and a Marine License. My marine 2ways work, but since my ham radios are stored away I don't expect they will be of much use.
Anyway, it's fairly safe where we are here in Oz. The bush is not that close, and we have a boat in case of floods although not likely here. Famous last words???
I totally agree. However, before you can even think of asking for assistance, be prepared to slog through long conversations with octogenarians concerning hip replacements, knee replacements, back surgery, cataract surgeries, and how the government is trying to take over the Medicare system. Orrr be ready to tune in to doomsday preppers who, from their concrete bunkers stocked with pizza, homemade bullets, and diet Pepsi, like to say "toldja so" about the end of the world.
Cell worked all the time,
as far as POTS goes . unless you have copper all the way back to the CO , you might as well have a soft-phone .
I live accross the street from the main CO for all of the city
I dont worry ...... with my HT and a few AAs I can do anything .
Peter
The problem with cell phones is the inevitable swamping of the lines that will occur in any emergency. There just aren't enough lines available. The same thing happens with land lines, but it's worse with cell phones. Your tower may have power, but you may not be able to get through because everyone else in your neighborhood is trying to do the same.
For IP-based phones that you get through your ISP, most ISPs actually do have UPS-backed systems, but likely you don't, unless you've thought of it. Most cable and DSL modems are powered from the wall. You either need a UPS, an inverter, or rig up something to power the unit directly from some other DC source. Most people won't have any of these.
The San Diego area had a major power outage a few years back, and it lasted a day or two. Unprecedented for here, but it demonstrated the usefulness of those wind-up rechargeable radios. I had to go out to the car in order to listen to news reports. A 9-volt transistor battery AM radio would have worked, but the nearby drugstore didn't have any. Said they sold out of them sometime in the 70s. I blame disco.
I actually ditched my cell phone in favor of a land line. So much cheaper (ironic) and more reliable.
Yup - still have my GE 40CH handhelds and a GE 40CH mobile unit...just in case.
No habla "cell phone"; don't want one, don't need one, and after working with RF I'm not too keen of having 2W of +900MHz radiating directly into my brain. So that relegates me to a landline, which includes my DSL connection.
Pizza? Darn! I forgot to stock up on PIZZA!
:thumb:
RF is not ionizing radiation so the only effect on tissue would be heating. Since blood flow carries and disperses heat throughout the body the effect of being near an antenna that puts out a few watts at most would be far less than the sun shining on your skin.
It's not secure, though.
-Phil
Hurricane Sandy knocked out our power for 4 days and, if I remember correctly, it took out our land line, too.
The year before that, Hurricane Irene knocked out our power for 5 days but I think it left the land line alone.
Both incidents knocked out the internets (which, for us, I think depend on the local power system.)
In the immediate aftermath of both storms, we had cell phone service.
In both situations our roads looked like a logging operation.
The reality of massive disasters is that you're pretty much on your own in the immediate aftermath, whether you've got communications or not. For at least a while, you're just another droplet of desperation in an endless sea.
(This is getting a bit complicated and weird, isn't it.)
Still I suspect that what I would need is neither a landline or a cell. I would need an advocate that speaks the local lingo with their own cell phone to get an ambulance or a police reponse to occur immediately.
If that isn't around, climb into a taxi and ask for a police station or hospital.
What's the worst that can happen? We are all going to die someday, right? Just let go and move on. ...toward that bright white light ;-)
+++++++++++++++++
My disaster experience is related to the 1989 Loma-Preata earthquake in San Francisco --- expect to be entirely on your own for 2 or 3 days without electricity and without adequate police services.. maybe without water. And if you live over six floors up in a building, nobody is going to climb the stairs to rescue you. .. .. except family.
I have been told, when you are in trouble in a foreign land... grab an innocent looking young lady to help you. Nobody is going to ignore an innocent young girl, but they might just about ignore anyone else.
http://www.wirelessweek.com/news/2007/03/myth-cellular-tower-health-hazards
the inverse Square law is a Fun thing
Head in microwave oven . Bad .........
From what I remember Erco lives in a area I used to spend time in and there is a 50 kW AM tower with in his area .
On the Whole the RF from a TV system is much higher then a Cell tower .
I have never seen a 2W rated phone in a decade . last I used a moto BAG PHONE on AMPS in the 90s ..... Yea one of those 3 W wonders that ran on a lead batt .
GSM is a tad more power then CDMA ...... and the latter can use as little as 60 mW - 250 mW NOT 2 W .......
I understand there might be more then just thermal but you need to understand that IF people want to play the FUD card on RF they better pick on what Is a larger harm by math ,,,,,,,,
and TV TX are some of the highest power Cont transmitters in the world .
Quite true, in an emergency it is legal to use any frequency to call for assistance.
If it's just a simple blackout caused by overloading, big deal. The power will be one in a day or so.
However, if there's a natural disaster and no electricity options are going to be limited for the average person and they are going to have bigger problems than just the lack of being able to yack to their friends about the latest Game of Thrones or their buddies on the other side of the globe. For example I live out in the high desert right on the San Andreas earthquake fault. If the big one hits it means no electricity for water pumping and out here you don't last long without water and in the summer time it's nasty hot, we get days of 105-110 degrees.
Water, radio and medical supplies are higher priorities.
Personally I'd make sure to have extra cell phone batteries because it doesn't matter if the cell phone towers are working or not if you phone is powerless. If one can afford it, a small portable generator can be a big asset in such instances as well.
I wonder if that means I could open the doors of my three dozen microwave ovens, point them all out the window, and tap out a toasty SOS into the stampede of zombies that is sure to follow any natural disaster.