So it looks like I'm going to be living without a cell phone for a month. I can't find the damn thing, and since I'm going to buy an iPhone on July 11th, it doesn't make sense to replace it.
The experience has already been interesting. I'm working around the absence with Skype, IM, and Twitter, and a modest amount of piggybacking on friends cell phones by getting them to text other people.
It triggered and interesting conversation this morning with the ever-brilliant Tim Lee of Cato and Ars Technica, who is staying with me for a few days. The old landline networks were designed to be extremely robust and keep working during emergencies. The new technologies are nowhere near so reliable--the New York cell phone network was overloaded to the point of uselessness during both the blackout and 9/11 (not helped by the fact that most cell phone networks had big antennas perched on the roof of the World Trade Center). Even the internet, with its fault tolerant distributed architecture, is vulnerable, because so many people get their service through their cable provider, and until now no one has focused on making sure that people have uninterrupted access to Law and Order reruns during a crisis. Though perhaps we should. It certainly soothes me to know that at any hour of the day and night, I can see Sam Waterston using morally ambiguous coercive tactics to secure a conviction.
With so many people in my generation off the land line network, what happens to us in a big emergency? One possibility is that I have to wander around northwest DC making sure everyone I know is all right--even my Mom has Vonage rather than a traditional land line. On the other hand, the fact that we have so many channels of communication may actually make us better off--even when the WTC collapse had severed New York's major phone trunk, and the cell phone networks were out, email kept all my graduate school classmates in touch.
More thoughts on the cell-less existence as I have them.
On the flip side, after Katrina the land lines were useless, but text messages to cell phones were able to get through eventually. I don't know if it's accurate in practice to say that the new technologies are "nowhere near so reliable". Land lines require more physical infrastructure which is vulnerable, while cell towers are more likely to experience capacity problems in an emergency.
I have a cell phone that I use only when I travel on business trips. Other than that it is always off and on the shelf. It drives people bonkers when they can never reach me on the cell phone.
But I am plugged in to Skype 10 hours a day with Skype in numbers that if you call from a cell or landline you can get me on my PC w/ headset.... provided I'm at my PC. Otherwise I don't want to hear from anyone.
And I prefer it that way.
I haven't looked at the costs, but aren't some pre-paid cellphones fairly cheap?
Would it be possible for you to pick up one as a temporary phone without breaking your budget?
Nice! Now there are two Americans without a cell phone at the moment.
If it helps at all, you can also text people through their cellphone provider's email gateway. If they're on Verizon, for example, you would text 2345678901@vtext.com, where 234-567-8901 is their phone number. A list of all the provider's addresses is available at http://www.allthingsmarked.com/2006/09/04/howto-send-free-text-messages-through-email/ .
My wife and I each have a cell phone we use for ALL calls. However I have the cheapo landline ($17/month) that has no long distance and 30 local calls per month.
I have it for two reasons:
1) Insurance. If anything were to happen to my wife, or me, or the baby on the way, could I ever live with myself for not having a land-line that could dial 911 and go directly to the local call center with address information correctly displayed? Cell phones and 911 are not nearly as integrated.
2) Throw away telephone number. I give all businesses, credit cards, utilities, etc. this number. I never answer the line if it rings, and if it is important, they will leave a message on the answering machine. But they won't be bothering me on my cell phone.
I do admit though it is an added expense, but I believe it is worth it.
I finally gave in and got one after 6 months without one; I really hate using the phone, but finally work made it necessary. (I have mobile broadband and use that everywhere instead.)
But if you find it harder than you think to live completely without one, try going to CVS and buying a Tracfone; they're about $10 plus airtime -- if you're not a heavy user (and/or use twitter and skype) you can get through the month for the price of a month's contract with your usual provider.
As for large-scale emergencies -- aside from being a geek, it's one of the few reasons I got a ham radio license -- it doesn't require massive infrastructure to be maintained between you and the other party. (Though it was more immediately useful to me when I lived in a hurricane-prone area of Florida...) I may not be able to reach who I want directly, but I can pass along and receive messages as long as my batteries last.
I haven't looked at the costs, but aren't some pre-paid cellphones fairly cheap?
T-mobile's currently offering a prepaid phone free after rebate.
This is sort of off topic but this got me thinking if it is possible to send text messages to 911 in an emergency. In a hypothetical situation where you can't talk or when cell phones don't work but messages apparently do, it would be very useful to have this functionality.
Personally I think our redundancy of communication will enable us to survive the loss of POTS lines ("plain old telephone service").
Also it depends upon the kind of emergency. Remember "Seven Days in May," when all the conspirators had to do was to take out the three broadcast television networks? Or Larry Niven's "Inconstant Moon," where all the television shows is static and people have to figure out what's happened to the sun by measuring its reflective power off the moon and the other planets?
Here in NYC during hte blackout a bizillion ham radios just came out of nowhere, and people set them up on the sidewalk to provide news to everyone as a kind of public service.
I faced the same situation, not wanting to get a new cell phone because I wanted a 3G iPhone. I got a cell phone from Virgin Mobile. The phone cost $15, and I bought it at K-mart. I pay about $20/month for my month-to-month contract, much less than I paid for from Verizon.
If you still have a contract, you can buy a used phone cheap on e-bay to hold you over until you get your iPhone. Verizon will charge you $20 for an "activation fee".
Of course, month-to-month still leaves you holding the bag for a month when you get the phone, but when I cancelled my Verizon contract in the beginning of May, they still charged me for the whole month of may.
The POTS network was definitely designed to a higher reliability standard, but being swamped with more calls than it can switch is not a reliability problem, it's a capacity issue.
Now, I have no idea how reliable or redundant the connections between cell towers are, but comparing that to land-line reliability is highly dependent on the type of disaster. Certainly a knowledgeable terrorist (or, more likely for us here in the Pacific Northwest, a determined earthquake) could easily take out one of those nondescript phone company central-office buildings and immediately kill landline service for 10k ~ 30k people, or however many happened to be served by that particular CO.
Heh, Hi Tim!
" ... what happens to us in a big emergency?"
Ham Radio.
In the meantime, why don't you get a TracFone? I think they cost about $15 in WalMart, plus another $15 or $20 for a 60-minute prepaid card.
Is it really that important to keep in touch in an emergency? Sure, it can be nerve-wrecking to not know if your loved ones are okay, but you being able to talk to them isn't going to kill them (or bring them back to life).
I live in SF. One of the disaster preparedness tips I've read in a few places is to make note of any remaining pay phones in your area for use in a pinch. Seems like decent advice, though I admit I haven't followed it.
Not sure which carrier you use, but if you go into the store they will probably be able to give you a new SIM card to go with your phone number. At least with ATT/Cingular you can place that SIM card in one of the pre-paid phones they sell at Target ($20-$30) and it will work.
1) Go to Bestbuy
2) Buy the $15 dollar cell phone.
3) Activate.
4) Profit.
The landline network is not really that reliable in an emergency. First of all, it overloads. When the most recent big earthquake hit San Francisco (about 1986 or so), it was impossible to get through to people for several days, since practically everyone in the entire country knows someone somewhere in northern California and wanted to be sure that he or she was okay.
Also, the switches are vulnerable. In fact, my office was without landline service for a month or so after 9/11 because its service ran through a telephone switch that was destroyed in the WTC collapse. In contrast, although cellphones were not so useful on the day of 9/11, they worked fine starting about 9/12.
Don't worry, honey, if the crap really does hit the fan, The System will have you right where they want you. See, in the case of a big nuke/chem/bio attack in a major urban area, the System is planning on using the police and National Guard to block off all exit routes anyway so that the contamination does not get spread. When the civilian comm systems go down, only the military (and to a much lesser extent law enforcement) will be able to talk to each other. Just sit tight in your apartment until they get the roads and bridges blocked off and then wait until...well...until you are either dead or they get the decontamination procedures worked out. Shouldn't take more than a few weeks. Or months. But remain calm. All, in general, will be well. The government will survive.
"what happens to us in a big emergency?"
To repeat other comments - Ham Radio
Check out MARS, ARES, RACES and SATERN. They're all ham radio based and some have the ability to send e-mail, data and establish WAN's. There are volunteers in these organizations in virtually all communities who maintain active networks and practice responding to emergencies.
The cell phone towers rely on landlines for network connectivity so they are ipso facto less reliable than landlines alone - as a general rule.
I thought in this age of internet I was going to be the first to suggest that "Amateur Radio" would be the surviving element. IT's widely distributed, it's scalable, you can cobble an antenna out of literally anything, and it's widely available. Small handheld sets are surprisingly cheap and licensing courses no longer require morse code. As the ARRL (American Radio Relay League) is so famous for saying: "When All Else Fails: Amateur Radio"
Brad / KI6HDB (Central California)
Sigh. The landlines DID keep working in New Orleans after the flood. I know, because mine did. Will we never get the country to understand any of the correct facts about what happened? Everytime I see any mention of the flood in the national media and on the web, there are errors galore. Forget everything you think you know about what happened and ask US. We'd be glad to talk your ear off about it.
Yup - Amateur Radio. Even a small, inexpensive FM handi-talkie can be useful during storms - not only do they transmit and receive on amateur frequencies, they also receive Weather Radio (162.40 and thereabouts) and some Police and Fire radios are still 'un-trunked'. Plus the amateur radio storm spotters are more real-time than any TV weather information.
Also - there's no Morse Code test for any license now, so it's a great thing to have for safety and an interesting hobby.
Why would an emergency knock out a large number of cellphones for anything more than a few hours?
One tower may be destroyed, but I don't think all 50 within a city would be.
Phones that link to Satellite are actually the most robust, totally immune to anything on the surface of the Earth.
GK, all it takes to knock out a cell site is to take out the power. Most don't have more than a few hours worth of battery capacity, and few have on-hand standby generators: The cell company plan (such as it is) is that they would move a generator to the cell site to power it.
Problems with the plan: Not enough generators to go around. Not enough workers (who will be living in the impacted area, after all) to move the generators. Not enough fuel on hand to keep the generators working for more than a few hours. I could go on.....
Also, at a cell site, the signal is moved from wireless (the cell phone) to the wired phone network: If the wired phone network goes down for any reason (any at all) the cell site is history. Even making a call within the signal of a single working cell won't work because the switch is not located there: The cell site is just a bunch of antennas and transmitters, with no intelligence.
What happens in a small emergency?
Seriously, how many people would be 100% able to find their well-powered, well-signaled cel phone if their spouse were choking, or having a heart attack, or there was a fire, or other reason to dial 911?
I wouldn't. I don't know ladies who could manage in a panic to even find it in their purse.
I find it helpful to have an old phone or two lying around. If you don't have one, they are available cheap on eBay.
Then, if anything happens to your cool phone you can just activate one of the junkers...
In Medvedev's Russia, cell phone finds you!
Whadda mean you can't find your cell phone? TSA, FBI, AT&T and DOJ all know where it is.
how many people would be 100% able to find their well-powered, well-signaled cel phone if their spouse were choking, or having a heart attack, or there was a fire, or other reason to dial 911?
Well, I would, because I always put it in the same place, or move it only with good reason.
My wife, not so much, which worries me.
Assuming that after the disaster strikes that the land lines are still viable, how many folks have a phone that doesn't need power from the power grid to use that land line?
That was the trouble in New Orleans. The land lines worked but you needed a mechanical phone that pulled it's power from the land line. Not a cordless phone that needed an external power supply to work.
If you have an old wired handset phone around, plug it into your land line and see if it works, if it does, keep it!
My experience during Katrina was different. I live 35 mile north of New Orleans. I evacuated the day after the storm. Cell phones were out since the towers were down. Landlines worked as long as you did not have a phone you had to plug in for electricity.
I returned a week later. Land lines worked. Cell was still so spotty I had to get a second cell from a different provider.
Maybe it is because I am an Old Fart (45), but I just do not need to be connected 24/7. I have a cell phone that my work issued to me. I turn it on at work and I turn it off when I leave work. I have a land line at home mostly for 911 availability and for my wife, since I spend less that two minutes per week talking on the phone. I am perfectly content to be alone with my thoughts, chat with my wife, visit friends, spend time on my hobbies etc....without having to share it all by phone with people who are not there with me. Growing up with cell phones, especially having one of your own as a child, may have created psychological dependencies in the younger generations. Maybe it is healthy, maybe not, but that need to be connected to everyone all the time exacerbates the system overload during public emergencies.
I went through 3 hurricanes in 7 weeks in Central Florida in 2004, and lost power each time. We lost power after Charley for 4.5 days, Frances was just under 2, Jeanne was about 1.5, and we got off easy; some neighborhoods were powerless for over 2 weeks after Charley.
I had a generator to power my fridge, fans and modem, but each time I did not have a working cable connection because the cable company didn't have power to their switches, and apparently no backup power, either. Even with an emergency responder priority ranking on my LE agency cell phone, I didn't have service at my end of town for almost 30 hours after Charley hit because the towers weren't powered. I always had dial tone on POTS, though, which is the only reason I'm still paying monthly to keep it running.
The Cell phone system and the POTS systems allow for first responders to access the systems in times of crisis. Regular users are bumped.
What about "On Star?" We have both a TracFone and a land line but I certainly like having On Star in our vehicles for 9-11 type emergencies.
Nice! Now there are two Americans without a cell phone at the moment.
Three.
Don't cell phone towers have long-lasting backup generators?
On a related note, as another guy from Hurricane country (Mobile, not N.O.) the exact same issue comes up with people hoping lithium ion advances will bring practical 100% electric cars in a few years.
You are potentially f**ked if the grid goes down for a few days.
I think plug-in hybrids would be a good compromise.
As Jerry Pournelle says, "Efficiency is the enemy of reliability."
Also, think about all of those small battery powered TVs, and radios that receiver TV audio, which will become useless next year with the DTV changeover. Even once small DTV devices come out, the antenna issues are nastier as far as getting reception goes. I never hear anyone discussing this issue.
Get your mother an old, empty soup can, and procure another for yourself. Then buy a really long string . . .
So, no one has thought of plugging their wireless phone into their UPS? That should work at least for calling out.
Get one that takes a 12V battery, and jumper to a car battery after the one in the UPS dies. You are not supposed to, but that's because the UPS probably will not survive trying to charge the car battery, not because of something mystical about a 12V car battery vs a 12V gel cell.
Sheesh. City people.
I'd recommend getting one now, if only as a spare in case the wunderfone goes bad, or gets stolen, or lost, or whatever. It's always good to have backup of some kind.
I only got my cellphone about three months ago, after going almost four years without -- I make about 30 minutes worth of calls every two months, so I got a Tracfone. But in my new apartment, I signed up for POTS ($14/month - unlimited local calls) rather than the cable company's "slow internet, basic cable, and unreliable phone for just $99!" deal. Every earthquake or storm or anything else has always knocked all of our services down except for the phone lines, and I'm not about to go four days without my parents (or employer) being able to talk to me.
Incidentally, I liked the discipline imposed on the rest of the universe by my lack of a cell phone. No one on this planet has a reasonable expectation of getting me to talk to them at any time of the day or night without regard to what I'm doing (I have friends whose correspondents become distressed if they're forced to wait for half an hour to a text talking about how cute their cat is.) I don't answer my phone while driving, eating, etc., and it's lovely -- and having to leave a message forces people who call me to get to the point, saving me airtime.
Nice! Now there are two Americans without a cell phone at the moment.
Four
One of the lessons learned from Katrina was that cell phones and public safety radios became nothing but bricks when the cell towers and radio sites went down.
Some cell sites can switch locally but have no connectivity outside the immediate coverage area of that specific site, a lesson we learned last year when a flood took out one of the multi-town telephone switches.
My missus has bugged me about dropping our POTS line, but when we had a line of thunderstorms come through and knock out power, we had no cable, and after a couple of hours, no cell service. But the POTS line kept kept working. Thank goodness I convinced her to keep one wired phone because our cordless phones wouldn't have been of any use.
My experience in the land of hurricanes has been precisely the opposite of yours Megan. In a hurricane (emergence) cable and land line phone and internet are the first to go. Cellular (and cellular bandwidth) hang in there (if you even lose them at all).
My experience in the land of hurricanes has been precisely the opposite of yours Megan. In a hurricane (emergence) cable and land line phone and internet are the first to go. Cellular (and cellular bandwidth) hang in there (if you even lose them at all).
Sarah - I have not noticed that people who leave messages on my land line at the office, or people who call my cell phone when I'm not answering it, are any more likely to be concise in their messages than they are if they get through to me on the first try.
I was in Berkeley at the time of the '89 earthquake. My sister was at UC Santa Cruz, which was much harder hit. The AT&T network was swamped, but I managed to leave a message on my sister's answering machine by using the access number for Sprint LD and calling her. Of course, she didn't get the message until the next day because the University didn't let the students into the dorms until the next day. But back when you had to dial an access number to get non-AT&T long distance, those networks didn't get swamped.
It certainly soothes me to know that at any hour of the day and night, I can see Sam Waterston using morally ambiguous coercive tactics to secure a conviction.
Heh. Such constancy is indeed reassuring.