NEWSFLASH: Cellphones rely on an age-old technology - electricity

[Karl W4KRL]

F.C.C. Details Storm-Related Cellphone Problems


By EDWARD WYATT
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/edward_wyatt/i
ndex.html>  and BRIAN X. CHEN
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/brian_x_chen/i
ndex.html> 


WASHINGTON - For all of the modern communications that keep people
connected, cellphones rely on an age-old technology that has repeatedly
demonstrated its own instability during emergencies - electricity. 

Power systems failures throughout the Northeast have been the main culprits
in the shutdown of more than 20 percent of the cell tower sites in 10
states, causing millions of lost calls on Wednesday, government and industry
officials said. 

Slow progress was made in restoring some services. Federal Communications
Commission
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/f/federal
_communications_commission/index.html?inline=nyt-org>  officials said that
the percentage of cell tower sites not working in the storm-damaged areas
declined "by a few percentage points" as of Wednesday morning, down from
about 25 percent on Tuesday. 

More at
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/technology/fcc-details-cellphone-problems.
html?_r=0
<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/technology/fcc-details-cellphone-problems
.html?_r=0&pagewanted=print> &pagewanted=print

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://amrad.org/pipermail/tacos/attachments/20121031/8f79a1e5/attachment.html>