Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Trying to use your cell phone during the blackout was nearly impossible. What went wrong?

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 16 Aug 2003 23:34:12 -0400

Technology Wireless gets blacked out too

Trying to use your cell phone during the blackout was nearly impossible. What went
wrong?
August 16, 2003: 8:58 AM EDT

By Paul R. La Monica, CNN/Money Senior Writer

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The blackout of 2003 proved one thing to many cell phone
users: the death of the traditional landline may be greatly exaggerated.

Many wireless customers in the New York metropolitan area, parts of the Midwest
and Canada were unable to use their cell phones during the blackout, which made a
frustrating situation even more annoying.

But landlines, including pay phones, (When was the last time you saw l ines for
one of those?) pretty much worked like a charm. So what went wrong?

In most cases, the biggest problem was a huge surge in volume (everybody all
trying to make calls at the same time) that flooded the wireless spectrum, leading
to many busy signals.

"Spectrum is a scarce resource and wireless companies build out their networks
based on average expected usage levels," said Greg Gorbatenko, an analyst with
Loop Capital Markets, an independent research firm focusing on telecom and cable.
"A spike in demand can blow up the network and most cannot handle an emergency."

To that end, a spokesman for Sprint said that its wireless division handled three
times the average daily volume in New York City on Thursday and Verizon Wireless
said that call volume was four times normal in all the areas affected by the
blackout.
"Think of it as five thousand people trying to get through your front door at
once. It's going to be slow," said Mark Siegel, a spokesman for AT&T Wireless,
which was still experiencing some cell phone service problems Friday morning.
But many had hoped that after the terrorist attacks on Sept.  11, 2001, wireless
carriers would be better prepared for the next time there was an event that led to
a substantial surge in calls.

However, the wireless telecom sector has many problems. Most carriers are faced
with large debt loads. And because of intense competition (there are six major
carriers nationwide) they are resorting to price wars to attract new subscribers.
All that means that it has been difficult for the carriers to upgrade their
networks to handle more calls and will probably remain so for the foreseeable
future.

"It will be years before wireless carriers are at a level where they can handle
the type of volume that landlines can," said Allan Tumolillo, chief operating
officer of Probe Group, a telecom research firm.
Electricity matters

Still volume wasn't the only problem. For example, while walking home Thursday, I
completely lost my cell phone signal once I got into downtown Manhattan and headed
over the Manhattan Bridge into Brooklyn. The service was not restored until my
power went back on Friday morning and even then it was spotty at best. Meanwhile,
my landline at home worked fine the whole time.

Why was that the case? Dan Wilinsky, a spokesman for Sprint said that while
wireless carriers have ample power backup to protect their switches, that is not
the case for all of the cell sites, which house the antennas that transmit the
calls across a network. So as power slowly comes back to blacked-out areas, so
should cell phone service.
Cingular said that as of Friday about 25 percent of its cell sites in Cleveland
and New York City were still not operational and that more than 75 percent were
out of commission in Detroit due to power outages.
Still, it's kind of alarming that cutting-edge technology such as wireless
communications can be undermined by a glitch in a nineteenth-century innovation.

"Wireless is too dependent on the external power supply. And since wireless phones
are becoming the main phone line for many people, the industry has to make sure
that customers have the same kind of reliability as with landlines," said Jeff
Kagan, an independent telecom analyst.

At the very least the blackout should put pressure on the major wireless carriers
to bulk up coverage in already high-traffic networks and take more steps to insure
that wireless antennas can keep running even in the event of a power outage.
And given the massive problems that cell phone users experienced on Thursday and
Friday, this might convince some that having no landline at all is a bad idea.

"Wireless is not a failsafe. It's a telecommunications accessory," said
Gorbatenko.

http://money.cnn.com/2003/08/15/technology/landlines/index.htm?cnn=yes

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