Communications in an Emergency
Just as we suspected would happen, cellular telephone service was disrupted by the very moderate earthquake the Los Angeles area experienced on Tuesday, July 26th, 2008. Our cellular service was unavailable here in the San Fernando Valley for over 30 minutes, and I hear that cell service was not available from other carriers and in other locations for up to several hours.
Our land line POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) continued to work, as did our DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) Internet service. If you rely on your cell phone for emergency communication, and you needed help during that time, you were in trouble.
When Pacific Telephone had an approved monopoly for copper wire telephone service in the Los Angeles area, they were required, as part of their permission to operate, to maintain enough excess capacity in the system to provide adequate service during times of increased demand -- like during an emergency. To the best of my knowledge, there is no such requirement for cellular service providers. So if you rely on cellular telephone service as you primary means of communication, be advised that your carrier is under no obligation, other than market pressure, to provide adequate capacity into their systems to allow for unusually heavy call volumes. That, according to news reports, is what the cell companies said happened on Tuesday -- increased demand made their systems slow to operate, if they could operate at all.
Even though my wife and I both have cell phones, we pay for minimum POTS service at our home for emergency communications. We know that during an emergency, there is a much better chance the old copper wire systems will work -- at least in the near term, than our cell phones.
In addition to our cordless handsets, we also have an old fashioned telephone -- one that doesn't need batteries or a power supply, connected connected to the POTS. So if we lose power and our cordless phones don't work, and for whatever reasons our cell phones aren't working, we still have the older hard wired phone to rely on for emergency traffic. There is a much better chance that the older phone will still function.
The phone company uses continually charging battery to power the POTS system, so even if there is a major power failure in our area, there's still a reasonable chance the POTS system will work -- at least for a while.
In an emergency, even if all the systems are still working, it's good advice not to make any phone calls that aren't absolutely necessary -- especially right after the emergency begins. Leave whatever phone system capacity is still available for those with true emergencies. If you and your family are OK, there's no reason to call Mom back East, or your Sister in Texas, to let them know you're all right immediately after the event. They probably haven't even heard about the problem yet... Wait until those with true emergencies have had a chance to report them before you call. Or better yet, don't call at all -- send an email (if the Internet is working) or, if not, send a text message. Text messages require fewer system resources and allow more people to use the systems without driving them into the ground.
And, of course, when all else fails, Amateur Radio still works...
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Labels: Cellular Telephone, Emergency Communications, POTS, Telephone Handsets, UPS
posted by ACS-CERT Liaison @ 6:23 PM
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