So my sister is in Hawaii on vacation. She got evacuated to higher ground due to the tsunami threat. The interesting thing is they essentially shut down cell phone service. She has an IPhone and was able to send and receive email the whole time. SHe could also text. But not send or receive calls.
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Cell Phone in an Emergency
- Thread starter coastie
- Start date
New Years when the ball drops there is no cell service either because the lines are jammed. But, texting still worked.
Same thing happened to me when the cell towers in my area code went down for a day - no calls in or out, but texting worked. My family knows in a regional emergency to attempt to text each other, because the calling function will probably not work.
YMMV.
Same thing happened to me when the cell towers in my area code went down for a day - no calls in or out, but texting worked. My family knows in a regional emergency to attempt to text each other, because the calling function will probably not work.
YMMV.
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Cell phones these days have a priority mechanism built in that allows emergency personnel to make calls over ordinary citizens. That on top if the huge amount if traffic in extraordinary times means you are nit likely to make a call when you really need to.
I can't even make a call at a ball game and that is nowhere near the load a disaster puts on the system.
I can't even make a call at a ball game and that is nowhere near the load a disaster puts on the system.
M
MACGYVR
Here it is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationwide_Wireless_Priority_Service
And an informative brochure from the DHS
http://gets.ncs.gov/docs/WPS Brochure.pdf
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Cell Towers can handle a limited number of simultaneous connections. A cell call requires a dedicated connection, once all the local towers you can reach fill up, you wont get cell service until someone releases theirs and you get one back. Advances in cell communication schemes have drastically increases the number of connections towers can support, but they're still limited.
SMS (text) messaging doesn't require a dedicated line and often use seperate channels from the primary cell service, so "service" is more open with the system sending and recieving texts whenever bandwidth is available (it can take a lot longer than normal for the message to go through, but it goes through) If your phone allows "group" messaging - set up a group for your emergency contacts and send out text messages to indicate rally points and confirm safety.
SMS (text) messaging doesn't require a dedicated line and often use seperate channels from the primary cell service, so "service" is more open with the system sending and recieving texts whenever bandwidth is available (it can take a lot longer than normal for the message to go through, but it goes through) If your phone allows "group" messaging - set up a group for your emergency contacts and send out text messages to indicate rally points and confirm safety.
Sounds less like 'they shut down calling' than 'voice calling was unavailable due to overload'?
Speaking of smartphones in an emergency, if you carry a smartphone instead of a glovebox full of maps, you might consider installing a map tool with complete locally-stored maps on your phone, e.g. MapDroyd.
Speaking of smartphones in an emergency, if you carry a smartphone instead of a glovebox full of maps, you might consider installing a map tool with complete locally-stored maps on your phone, e.g. MapDroyd.
Thank You!!!!!!!
Rob Boudrie
NES Member
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Landlines have a similar system using the 710 area code (1-710-NCS-GETS followed by your GETS pin). If you have a GETS account (Government Emergency Telecommunication Service), your call gets not-premptive priority for land line calls.
KBCraig
NES Member
This is a lesson people learned in my region during hurricanes Dennis, Katrina and Rita. Text messages consume a tiny part of the bandwidth of voice calls, plus they're passed along upon connection availability. This is Reason Number 1,245 why I wish we had more competition in cell phone service in America -- companies actually charge for texts when then allow unlimited calls.
But, yes: in a disaster situation, use text messaging.
dcmdon
NES Member
Exactly.
My sister was 6 blocks from ground zero on 9/11. My parents tried desparately to call her. No luck. She tried to desparately call out, no luck.
I texted her one simple message "R U OK". She replied "yes" and we could all relax.
A text like that consumes about as much bandwidth as 1/100th of a second of a phone call, it can be queued , and doesn't require dedicated bandwidth. You can see why texts are given priority in emergency situtions.
I wish there were an inexpensive way to do text messages. I use email to send to a phone once in a while, but don't have a personal cell phone, and work won't pay for text messages. I frankly can't stand "typing" on the phone keypad either.
One thing to watch out for with texting is message queueing problems, especially across providers. If you are sending critical data, make sure the other person CONFIRMS what you sent them.... otherwise you don't really know whether or not they actually got your message.
-Mike
-Mike
For the skinflint crowd, if you have access to a PC with internet access, and you know the destination's provider, you can send them a text message from their web gateway, for nothing. At least that's a partial solution. There are probably other internet > SMS gateways out there, too, but most of the non
provider based ones are probably not free.
-Mike
