My Verizon iPhone failed me during the East Coast Quake

[thetexan]

If people demand their cell phones work after an event that will have everyone using their cell phones at once, be prepared for your bill to at least triple in expense. No network can handle a sudden spike of demand and for them to do so would be extremely costly. I remember the days before cell phones and I've seen landlines fail as well during emergencies as capacity increases.

The highway example was perfect and hits home since I live in a hurricane area. On a normal days our highways are acceptable. When an evacuation is ordered, what is typically a 20 minute drive turns into a 4 hour drive (very literal on that).

Do your part. Don't try to call people after an emergency. Figure out an alternative such as Twitter or Facebook for status updates. Get yourself an emergency plan with your family and setup a meeting location in the event of a complete communications failure.

Also the network will prioritize 911 traffic and each switch reserves capacity specifically for 911. That's not to say it won't fail since 911 only has so much capacity going into each of their answering centers.

 

[nitemare]

if you dial 911 from your phone, it WILL go through. There are things built in for emergencies...I know people think so when they're in a crisis, but calling friends and family is NOT the important thing. Making sure people who are injured or trapped, in real danger, can call 911 and get aid.

I know, there can be any number of hypothetical situations where only someone calling a person in danger to see if they're all right ends up saving them, and I'm sure some have happened, but for the most part, in a crisis, keeping the lines clear for those who really need aid is what is important...and phones are built to allow those 911 calls from practically anywhere. They'll jump on other networks to do so, they'll do so unactivated and without a SIM installed, etc.

even 911 went down out here in VA after the earthquake and they were asking us to call a different number in case of emergency.

 

[From A Buick 8]

cheer up sugar plum, it was all over the news, no deaths, what was the emergency you needed to say? that some outdoor chairs got knocked over?

Image

i think i want a tshirt with this picture on it.

 

[TC25]

if you dial 911 from your phone, it WILL go through.

In Port Saint Lucie, FL, some geniuses call 911 when their local McDonalds runs out of McNuggets.

 

[nateo200]

I think most Engineers can safely see easier said than done....Do you guys have any idea the kind of backhaul bandwidth you need just to support existing urban cell networks? This isn't like plugging in a wireless router at home to 100Mbits/s ethernet and forgetting to put a backup battery. We're talking like fiber optic backhaul which if any of that gets damaged might I had its a B**** to fix compared to ethernet/coaxial, tall ass mounts and generators...lots of big generators...if you look at this video you will see carriers like Verizon do indeed work hard to keep there network up...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KSFp_p5dzM
I'm not down playing the serious nature of not being connected but like I said this isn't plugging in the Linksys....

 

[kdarling]

While a cell phone will use any compatible network for a 911 call that it can find, a 911 call does not have any priority getting an empty cell slot.

The only cellular calls that have connection priority are those from phones registered with the national Wireless Priority Service... typically belonging to emergency officials... and even those cannot bump anyone already using a connection; but are just put in the front of the queue for the next free one.

That's why it's so important for people to stay off their phones during an emergency, so 911 and official calls can go through.

There are pushes to change things so 911 does get priority, but AFAIK nothing is in place now.

.

 

[xfadam]

I always have 3G speed issues in downtown DC with my ATT iPhone. When I am home in Cleveland Park its considerably faster.

I wasn't surprised at all when the service was spotty/non-existent with everyone evacuated from their offices and out using their phones.

 

[class77]

AT&T worked for me during Katrina when I had no landline phones and no electricity for a week. I can't believe you are #itching about being without a phone for less than 30 minutes after an earthquake.

Thank heavens that you and your family are all right and move on!

 

[phillyphill]

cheer up sugar plum, it was all over the news, no deaths, what was the emergency you needed to say? that some outdoor chairs got knocked over?

Image

lol classic

 

[nateo200]

While a cell phone will use any compatible network for a 911 call that it can find, a 911 call does not have any priority getting an empty cell slot.

The only cellular calls that have connection priority are those from phones registered with the national Wireless Priority Service... typically belonging to emergency officials... and even those cannot bump anyone already using a connection; but are just put in the front of the queue for the next free one.

That's why it's so important for people to stay off their phones during an emergency, so 911 and official calls can go through.

There are pushes to change things so 911 does get priority, but AFAIK nothing is in place now.

.

I could have sworn GSM had something in its specs for reserved capacity for 911 though I don't know the detailed specs...I swear I read somewhere...I wish at times you could manually select cell sites because at times I find I'm on the edge of like 2 sites but 5 bars on one but it will hang on for dear life to the weak ones. Same thing could happen with emergency situations...cell phones hanging onto dead/full sites...correct me if I'm wrong its been a while since I skimmed over the GSM's specs...

 

[TC25]

I think most Engineers can safely see easier said than done....Do you guys have any idea the kind of backhaul bandwidth you need just to support existing urban cell networks? This isn't like plugging in a wireless router at home to 100Mbits/s ethernet and forgetting to put a backup battery. We're talking like fiber optic backhaul which if any of that gets damaged might I had its a B**** to fix compared to ethernet/coaxial, tall ass mounts and generators...lots of big generators...if you look at this video you will see carriers like Verizon do indeed work hard to keep there network up...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KSFp_p5dzM
I'm not down playing the serious nature of not being connected but like I said this isn't plugging in the Linksys....

Anyone who takes a minute to think about it, could figure this out. Not the details, obviously, but enough to know it'd cost a fortune, well more than anyone would want included on their monthly bill. Unfortunately, more and more people do not take the time to think about it. They simply want what they want when they want it, oh and make it free or at least cheap.

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That's why it's so important for people to stay off their phones during an emergency, so 911 and official calls can go through.

Sadly, far too many people think it's an emergency if they can't post their status to Facebook and Twitter every 5 minutes.

 

[scaredpoet]

I've never NOT had a dial tone, even during extended power outages my land line has always worked.

I've actually not had dial tone on a landline several times.

During Hurricane Floyd, Sprint and Verizon cell and landline service was out for nearly a week due to flooding at a few central offices. Landlines were completely dead. It took days for the waters to subside and then several more days while Verizon dried out cables and replaced equipment to get things going again.

And then, during the 2003 Northeast blackout, landline service was down again. This time we would get a dial tone if the phone was picked up, but any calls incoming or outgoing would result in a fast busy. Turns out the battery backup system at the central office had been improperly maintained, and when the power went out, all routing into and out of the central office went with it.

Then about 2007, in a different region this time, a spate of poorly maintained trunks caused landline service to get really bad, and that's when I was done with landline service.

It used to be that landline service was very reliable, but lately it seems that landline companies have become way more careless.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

I've never NOT had a dial tone, even during extended power outages my land line has always worked.

Dial tone means nothing. It just means the lines are powered but if to many calls are going on you get all circuits are busy. 911 will more than likely go threw but that will be caused by someone else losing their call as the circuit is directed to your call. This apply to both.

After Ike hit Houston the land line networked failed with in 24 hours of power going out as the batteries for that network were not design to handle that long and wide spread outage. now good chunk of the cell towers stayed up and running because they could drive fuel out to those back generators but they only keep enough up to handle for the most part text messages and limited phone calls.

The phone network during an emergency are often times over loaded and what makes it even worse is the max number of circuits available are reduced by a fair margin because emergency services get extra circuits so they can communicated easier so you lose both any switching stations that go out plus the extra circuits diverted to emergency services.

There is only a limited number of lines that can be active at any moment in time. Hell during Rita if you had a Houston number you could not receive a call and your voice mail was off line. If you were in Houston you could not get a call out. I had a Houston number but I was in Lubbock at the time. I could make calls but I could not receive any for about a day and it was flaky for a few days after that.

The Quake caused people to nuts and over load the system.

 

[mtalsma]

I knew immediately why my phone wasn't working. Contrary to what some of you may have perceived, I am not ignorant when it comes to bandwidth issues.

I was at work that afternoon, and I have a 3 year old daughter who was with her grandmother. I was not so much concerned that she would have been in danger, I just wanted to see if they were okay and make sure everything at my house was okay. It's quite to difficult to tweet a 3 year old, or instruct her to check my Facebook status updates.

I did not expect the backlash on here by bringing up an issue, nor would I want my bills to triple so the wireless companies can address the aforementioned issue.

@TC25 I apologize for the response I put on here that has since been removed. That was unbecoming of me, and I'm glad it was removed.

 

[sk1wbw]

I know it's not a fault of iPhone, but for about 30 minutes after the quake (I am in Northern Virginia, about 15 miles outside of DC) I could not make a call. I received a SMS from my father in MI immediately following the quake asking about it, but my reply could not be sent. About 10 minutes following the quake, my data started working and I could access email, news, etc.

Cell service on the Eastern seaboard was inundated. This brings to light the shortcomings of our networks, especially post 9-11. Because of this event, I feel that in a future event that I cannot rely upon my iPhone, or any cell phone for that matter, for reliable communications.

Any other East coasters experience issues, Verizon, AT&T, or otherwise? I'm also concerned now that Irene is bearing down on us. We cancelled our land line and now I'm 2nd guessing that choice...

Iphones suck!!! If you had been using an Android phone you would have had no problems! Android rulz!

 

[Rodimus Prime]

I knew immediately why my phone wasn't working. Contrary to what some of you may have perceived, I am not ignorant when it comes to bandwidth issues.

I was at work that afternoon, and I have a 3 year old daughter who was with her grandmother. I was not so much concerned that she would have been in danger, I just wanted to see if they were okay and make sure everything at my house was okay. It's quite to difficult to tweet a 3 year old, or instruct her to check my Facebook status updates.

I did not expect the backlash on here by bringing up an issue, nor would I want my bills to triple so the wireless companies can address the aforementioned issue.

@TC25 I apologize for the response I put on here that has since been removed. That was unbecoming of me, and I'm glad it was removed.

You could of got her to use skype or some form of ISP based system.

 

[EddyP]

It's amazing we survived as a society before we had cell phones. I remember those dark stone age days when you had to go to a payphone when you were out to call somebody. Man. How did we ever live?

Seriously, you probably need to have a better plan to communicate with family in an emergency. You may want to rethink things if it currently depends on your cellphone. Or learn to live with being out of touch with loved ones for a few hours.

 

[diamond.g]

It's amazing we survived as a society before we had cell phones. I remember those dark stone age days when you had to go to a payphone when you were out to call somebody. Man. How did we ever live?

Seriously, you probably need to have a better plan to communicate with family in an emergency. You may want to rethink things if it currently depends on your cellphone. Or learn to live with being out of touch with loved ones for a few hours.

Payphone?? lol. I worked in a place that finally removed the last payphone a couple years ago.

I think they still have the emergency phones on the interstate. Not sure how far apart they tend to be though...

 

[kdarling]

It's amazing we survived as a society before we had cell phones. I remember those dark stone age days when you had to go to a payphone when you were out to call somebody. Man. How did we ever live?

Yep, and if you wanted to call long distance, you had to dial or ask for the Long Distance Operator. Sometimes you had to wait for them to call you back after they got a line to the city you wanted to call.

No instant gratification back then

Seriously, you probably need to have a better plan to communicate with family in an emergency. You may want to rethink things if it currently depends on your cellphone. Or learn to live with being out of touch with loved ones for a few hours.

Perhaps carriers should limit all calls to 1 or 2 minutes during an emergency. That gives enough time to say "We're okay" and then rotate to the next user.

 

[-aggie-]

Well, excuse me for expressing my displeasure about not being able to use my phone after an event of that effects many people.

I must be a moron to think that I should be able to access the network. That's it. I am a stupid idiot.

No, but the issue had nothing to do with you having an iPhone.

Texting worked fine, BTW.

 

[dingster1]

Yeah, my landline got through to only hear "All circuits are currently busy..."

My cell came back online about an hour or so later for voice. Texting worked fine

 

[Polekat]

You could always switch to a blackberry.
http://mashable.com/2011/08/23/earthquake-calling-crisis-blackberry/

The 5.9 magnitude earthquake that hit Virginia and rolled through much of the East Coast Tuesday caused more inconvenience than damage. Case in point: Although no cellphone towers were knocked out, high call volume meant massive service interruptions for users of AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile.

But one cellphone-based service managed to work as normal, according to Bloomberg: RIM’s BlackBerry Messenger.