[EAS] Resolved- Nationwide AT&T Mobility 9-1-1 outage

[Bill Ruck]

Warning! Rant mode on.

The cell industry as a whole has backed away from 
reliability.  "Costs too much."  They sued the FCC and won so there 
is no requirement for backup power at cell sites.  When the batteries 
go flat the site drops off.  Some sites have generators but most just 
have an inlet for an external generator.  That's great if one site 
needs alternate power but there is no way that any carrier can 
provide enough generators and staff to drive them out and connect 
them if there is a large area power outage.

If the world wants to cut the wires so be it.  But don't expect your 
cell phone to be anywhere as reliable as the red and green wires that 
once was universal.  We can not have it both ways.  Either consider 
lack of cell coverage an inconvenience or mandate that the cell 
industry provides 100% area coverage 100% of the time.  Your local 
regulated telephone monopoly is held to a much higher reliability 
standard than cell carriers.

A related story.  A couple of winters ago some guy got his 4x4 Jeep 
and took his girlfriend out four-wheeling on Hawkins Peak in Alpine 
County.  Drove around the gate in deep snow on Forest Service 
land.  Got stuck.  Whipped out his cell phone and found NO 
SERVICE.  Decided to walk out.  Searchers found his girlfriend near 
dead a couple of days later.  He was found frozen.

Even in Marin County, California, there are large areas on Highway 1 
(Shoreline Highway) that has no cell service.  I've helped motorists 
that had a flat tire by using the West Marin Disaster Council UHF 
GMRS repeater to contact someone to call the CHP.  Their cell phone 
had NO SERVICE.

VoIP is differently bad, for much the same reason.  Yes, it's cheap, 
but if you don't have Internet access you are talking to 
yourself.  What Internet service is 100%?  (I will admit that Sonic's 
Fiber to the Home has so far been excellent and much better than 
Earthlink DSL, but there are no guarantees.)

So if your cell phone is dead and your Internet is lacking how does 
an alert get to you?  Ah! Hah!  Your hand cranked emergency broadcast 
receiver.  Turn the carrier off, turn the carrier on, repeat twice, 
send 1 kHz tone.

A couple of weeks ago three big trees fell down blocking Lompico Road 
in Santa Cruz County for days.  The trees took out power, telephone, 
and cable TV.  Those stuck in Lompico went back to about 1900 except 
if they had a battery operated radio.  The county Communications 
Manager described the damage from the landslides and trees caused by 
heavy rain as "Making the county a Sicilian fishing village."

Bill Ruck
Curmudgeon
San Francisco

At 09:06 AM 3/9/2017, you wrote:
>On 3/8/2017 10:01 PM, Bill Ruck wrote:
>>Maybe I am missing something or perhaps old age is settling in, but 
>>since when is a cell phone outage anything other than an inconvenience?
>For most people, perhaps... until such time as you need to dial 911 
>and your phone doesn't work.  Then... the cell phone outage might 
>cost a life...
>
>Dave