Southern California iPhone Users Screwed?

[laughingperson5]

Anybody know if the AT&T cell phone signal towers are on Mount Wilson? I was watching ABC7 news earlier and they said that firefighters are being pulled from the site. So if the AT&T towers are on there will SoCal users be screwed?

 

[samiwas]

Anybody know if the AT&T cell phone signal towers are on Mount Wilson? I was watching ABC7 news earlier and they said that firefighters are being pulled from the site. So if the AT&T towers are on there will SoCal users be screwed?

Well, seeing that a cell tower generally covers a fairly small geographical region, I don't think the demise of one tower will leave all of SoCal without signal.

 

[laughingperson5]

Well, seeing that a cell tower generally covers a fairly small geographical region, I don't think the demise of one tower will leave all of SoCal without signal.

Uhh.. So will at least LA and OC be without signal?

 

[eawmp1]

Yes - pick up a corded phone now. Do it NAAAUUUUUGGGHHHHWWW!

Relax - there is huge overlap in urban areas. For example:

http://www.cellreception.com/towers/towers.php?city=los%20angeles&state_abr=ca&filter_att=1

 

[GoCubsGo]

Uh no there are more towers. The question should be whether or not lives are lost. Cell signals seem rather silly now don't they?

 

[yg17]

Uhh.. So will at least LA and OC be without signal?

No. AT&T has hundreds, if not thousands, of towers in LA.

 

[Silencio]

Mt. Wilson has television and radio antennas, including communications equipment used by emergency, fire, and law enforcement. If those get knocked out it's going to be all the more difficult to coordinate crews fighting the fires out there.

 

[benflick]

God forbid you can't use your phone for a day while people's houses are being destroyed...

 

[abijnk]

God forbid you can't use your phone for a day while people's houses are being destroyed...

My thoughts exactly... I'm in the South Bay area (about 40 miles South) and have been able to see the smoke from that fire since Saturday, I'm more concerned that the people up there are safe and no more firefighters die, but hey, that's just me...

 

[MacNut]

Mt. Wilson has television and radio antennas, including communications equipment used by emergency, fire, and law enforcement. If those get knocked out it's going to be all the more difficult to coordinate crews fighting the fires out there.

And a line of power cables. Cell phone outages should be the least to worry about.

 

[FX120]

Anybody know if the AT&T cell phone signal towers are on Mount Wilson? I was watching ABC7 news earlier and they said that firefighters are being pulled from the site. So if the AT&T towers are on there will SoCal users be screwed?

Yeah, if you're trying to make/recieve calls from the middle of the fire...

Cell sites typically cover about four square miles in terrain like that. It's not like there is one big antenna on a mountain somewhere covering all of the LA metro area. Downtown alone there are something like 4500 cell sites providing coverage to 2.5m subscribers.

 

[yg17]

Put it this way: If you're close enough to those towers that your phone can get a signal from them, you've got bigger problems to worry about.

 

[The Californian]

It's nice to know that we lose a couple of brothers and all you can think about is "Will I be without my precious cell phone?" ... You're a champ. Makes me feel like the risk I take everyday is appreciated, but I know ... You really need to update your Twitter every ten minutes and don't care what risk people take to ensure you can do that.