Yep. What you experienced is exactly what I expected. And yes, sms MAY make it when a call will not. In SAR demos we tell people, lost in the woods, if cell doesn't work, send a message, hold the phone as high as you can and slowly move it a couple feet back and forth. I do lots of public service events in the Alleghenies (the PA portion of the Appalachians) where cell towers are either non-existant, far away or hidden by another hill. I know this is off topic but if it saves a life, so be it. When in this kind of area, TURN THE PHONE OFF WHEN YOU DON"T NEED IT. My battery goes down in3-4 hours in the woods where in my home area it stays up for nearly 30 hours. It goes on high power hunting for a tower that is not there. If you are planning to use a cell for emergencies, have an alternate way to charge it. I have a home made 8 AA cell pack with a cigarette lighter well that I carry - I can do a couple recharges. It will also operate my ham radio Hand held for days which is far better to get me out. BTW if you are using a GPS, take at least 3 sets of spare batteries. Other good things, a whistle, a mirror (to check your hair - you want to look good for the searchers - grin), a garbage bag for an emergency poncho and water. If you can read a compass and map they are good but if you don't know what magnetic north is, take a class if you plan to be in the wooded areas. It is also good to carry a snake bite kit, .38 and 9MM ones are great. The woods are fun. Ralph Brandt -----Original Message----- From: Luke S. Crawford [mailto:lsc@prgmr.com] Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2012 3:26 PM To: NANOG list Subject: Re: VoIP vs POTS (was Re: Operation Ghost Click) On Thu, May 03, 2012 at 10:59:47AM -0400, Brandt, Ralph wrote:
One of the first things cellular companies can do is stop overselling cellular. The second is end or raise the price significantly on unlimited plans, both voice and data. Go to what the landlines called, USS, that is you pay for every minute.... Even if that charge is small, it will drive usage down.
Otherwise on a bad day people will die waiting for the yackers to get off the call phone so they can call 911. Hopefully it will not be on VOIP and the internet is down.
A few years back, I was working late on the top floor of one of the Yahoo mission college buildings during an earthquake. It felt really dramatic; I was on the 9th floor and the lights were swinging back and forth and yeah. So, I went outside (who knows how bad it was) figured out it wasn't that bad, and so before going home, I decided to call some people to tell them I was okay. Of course, it was as you describe, I couldn't get through. what did I do? I sent a text message. It got through and I got an answer back in about the usual amount of time it takes someone to respond to a sms text. It seems like SMS might be a reasonable backup during these periods of high load.