Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Enough Already, Senator Schumer

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2003 09:08:36 -0400

Enough Already, Senator Schumer
Contributed by derek on Wed, Aug 27 2003

Senator Charles Schumer seems to be spending a lot of his time griping about the
mobile phone companies in the US. Sometimes, like in his push for Local Number
Portability, there is a reasonable argument behind his tirades. But now, he's just
going over the top. As Schumer spends more time on wireless, he is learning more -
just enough to be dangerous.Schumer (and others, you know who you are) is now
saying that the wireless networks underperformed during the blackout. Uhhh...Isn't
this criticism a little misdirected? It was the electrical system that failed
miserably, not the wireless system. Wireless was built the same way you build your
home, with the expectation of electrical supply. It costs big money to put and
maintain generators at each tower site - money that you or I don't want to pay on
our phone bill. Schumer then criticizes the phone networks because he's learned
that they are only built to handle calls from 25% of their customers at any one
time (sounds high to me). He does not understand that this is the correct way to
design any network or complex system. The Senator must have avoided classes on
basic statistics where one learns about forecasting, predicting usage, and
managing variability. Increasing capacity would result in wasted capacity sitting
idle for the 99.9999999% of the time, when there is no crisis at hand. Building
this capacity will cost a lot. Verizon is not LifeAlert. Wireless carriers offer
communication, not safety. They do not owe you an emergency lifeline, and why are
they the ones who have to locate you when you are in distress? We do not pay them
for these services, yet we increasingly seem to expect them to save us from the
world. Frankly, I don't want my carrier to provide all these services if I have to
pay for them. Politicians have nasty habits of spending money without realizing
someone eventually has to pony up. Update: CTIA outgoing CEO Tom Wheeler adds the
obvious argument that roads also were clogged during the power outage. In fact
their clogged twice a day and every #$@# weekend. Why doesn't government stick to
their knitting and pave the whole country so we never have traffic jams.

www.techdirt.com

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for Your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark
Printer at Myinks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511
http://us.click.yahoo.com/l.m7sD/LIdGAA/qnsNAA/61FxlB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/