iPhones and Contracts

At 16 Jul 2007 06:44:55 -0400 George wrote:

> The old ATT TDMA sites that are going/gone away had backup generators.
> The GSM sites just have a minimal amount of battery. So with anything
> other than a short term power failure you aren't calling 911 (or
> anyone else) on your iphone.


If any other GSM carrier is operating (like T-Mobile) the 911 call would
go through them.

And forgetting the doom and gllom scenarios, backup batteries are good
for several hours- longer than than Vast majority of power outages. In
this post-Katrina world, AT&T has decided to spend their "backup"
resources on things like an increased number of COWs (Cells on Wheels,)
stored regionally, to deploy to areas in a true state of emergency,
rather than try to increase backup capacity of every cell tower in their
network.

In my nearly 20-years of using cellphones, I've never lost service due to
power outages- even in outages lasting for over two-days. I suspect the
cellcos know what they're doing in that area by now!



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

---

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Just FYI, when Seattle had that ***** of bad weather last winter,
it sure was nice to have that big 'ol gen at the VZW site nearby pumping
out the juice - and the site staying up the whole time. The GSM carriers
(and Sprint) were LONG off the air.

There is NO substitute...


"Todd Allcock" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> At 16 Jul 2007 06:44:55 -0400 George wrote:
>
>> The old ATT TDMA sites that are going/gone away had backup generators.
>> The GSM sites just have a minimal amount of battery. So with anything
>> other than a short term power failure you aren't calling 911 (or
>> anyone else) on your iphone.
>
>
> If any other GSM carrier is operating (like T-Mobile) the 911 call would
> go through them.
>
> And forgetting the doom and gllom scenarios, backup batteries are good
> for several hours- longer than than Vast majority of power outages. In
> this post-Katrina world, AT&T has decided to spend their "backup"
> resources on things like an increased number of COWs (Cells on Wheels,)
> stored regionally, to deploy to areas in a true state of emergency,
> rather than try to increase backup capacity of every cell tower in their
> network.
>
> In my nearly 20-years of using cellphones, I've never lost service due to
> power outages- even in outages lasting for over two-days. I suspect the
> cellcos know what they're doing in that area by now!
>
>
>
> --
> Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com
>

On Tue, 17 Jul 2007 18:41:21 -0700, "Ness_net"
<[email protected]> wrote in
<[email protected]>:

>Just FYI, when Seattle had that ***** of bad weather last winter,
>it sure was nice to have that big 'ol gen at the VZW site nearby pumping
>out the juice - and the site staying up the whole time. The GSM carriers
>(and Sprint) were LONG off the air.

Not according to people I know in that area.

--
Best regards, FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS:
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cingular_Wireless_FAQ>

Well Johnny, I LIVE here.
This is not 2nd hand info.

Note, I didn't say their entire system(s) were down.

But, very certainly in this area, they were. VZW was
the only system that stayed up, here. The only one with
a gen, keeping things humming... Battery plants just don't
last for days, more like hours.



"John Navas" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> On Tue, 17 Jul 2007 18:41:21 -0700, "Ness_net"
> <[email protected]> wrote in
> <[email protected]>:
>
>>Just FYI, when Seattle had that ***** of bad weather last winter,
>>it sure was nice to have that big 'ol gen at the VZW site nearby pumping
>>out the juice - and the site staying up the whole time. The GSM carriers
>>(and Sprint) were LONG off the air.
>
> Not according to people I know in that area.
>
> --
> Best regards, FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS:
> John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cingular_Wireless_FAQ>

On 2007-07-18, Ness_net <[email protected]> wrote:
> Well Johnny, I LIVE here.
> This is not 2nd hand info.
>
> Note, I didn't say their entire system(s) were down.
>
> But, very certainly in this area, they were. VZW was
> the only system that stayed up, here. The only one with
> a gen, keeping things humming... Battery plants just don't
> last for days, more like hours.

I was in Boynton Beach, FL during and after hurricane Frances in 2004.
No Verizon cell sites there had permanent generators that I noticed (I've
yet to see a generator at an isolated cell site where I live in California,
for that matter).

Despite this, after the first day, Verizon was the only wireless
carrier operating where I was for the 4 or 5 days the power was out.
While coverage was spotty in the town Verizon did have portable generators
deployed at the cell sites along the freeway close to where I was staying.
My Sprint and T-Mobile phones, on the other hand, were useless anywhere
north of Fort Lauderdale (where the power was still on), as was my
brother-in-law's Cingular phone.

Dennis Ferguson

Fair enough -- I didn't realize you were speaking of only one tower.

On Tue, 17 Jul 2007 22:09:14 -0700, "Ness_net"
<[email protected]> wrote in
<[email protected]>:

>Well Johnny, I LIVE here.
>This is not 2nd hand info.
>
>Note, I didn't say their entire system(s) were down.
>
>But, very certainly in this area, they were. VZW was
>the only system that stayed up, here. The only one with
>a gen, keeping things humming... Battery plants just don't
>last for days, more like hours.
>
>"John Navas" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
>> On Tue, 17 Jul 2007 18:41:21 -0700, "Ness_net"
>> <[email protected]> wrote in
>> <[email protected]>:
>>
>>>Just FYI, when Seattle had that ***** of bad weather last winter,
>>>it sure was nice to have that big 'ol gen at the VZW site nearby pumping
>>>out the juice - and the site staying up the whole time. The GSM carriers
>>>(and Sprint) were LONG off the air.
>>
>> Not according to people I know in that area.

--
Best regards, FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS:
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cingular_Wireless_FAQ>