[Hidden-tech] Cell phone towers and power outages

[Karl Hakkarainen]

Cell phone towers have good power backups but nothing compares with the
standard copper-wire landline service. Remember that those systems have
been in operation for nearly a century. They've been designed and
maintained to withstand pretty much anything we can throw at them. Cell
phones and cable systems, by comparison, need to sustain power in the
central office for 24 hours and towers for eight. (See
http://www.njslom.org/FCC-07-177A1.pdf.)
Ice storms can sometimes coat the cell towers, reducing their signals even
if the power remains on. Eventually, the heat from the antennae will melt
the ice and restore service.
A femtocell (at-home network connector) is dependent on your broadband
service. If you have DSL, you'll likely stay connected; if you have cable
or fibre, plan for an outage within an hour.
All that said, we abandoned our home landline many years ago and use a
network extender in Phillipston (Comcast).
kh


---
Karl A. Hakkarainen
508 829 5825
Queen Lake Consulting
www.queenlake.com
Twitter: RoasterBoy <https://twitter.com/#%21/RoasterBoy>


On Thu, Jul 30, 2015 at 1:05 PM, B. Kimo Lee <bklee at azurelink.com> wrote:

>
>
>
>
> Hi Charlie,
>
> I have T-Mobile and had sub-par reception at home. T-Mobile sent me an
> ASUS router to connect to my Comcast router which would allow me to make
> cell calls via WIFI when at home — after enabling wifi calling on my iPhone.
> Works like a charm. Only negative is if I'm on a wifi call and go outside
> away from the router. There isn't a hand off to cell, so you have to call
> back.
>
> An added benefit for me was that the ASUS router has a 5G network on it
> that dramatically speeded up my regular Comcast internet for other
> devices.  On Comcast it crawled. Via the ASUS it flies! Same Comcast cable.
> Go figure!
>
> Maybe Verizon can provide a similar router for you?
>
> Best,
> Kimo
>
>
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>
> On Jul 30, 2015, at 11:24 AM, Town Websites wrote:
>
>
>
>
> During one of the storms this week my house lost power for a few minutes,
> and I noticed that my cell phone (Verizon network) lost data connection.
>  Power came back on and the cell data stayed off for a while longer, but I
> recall seeing bars indicating there was a cell signal … but I didn’t try
> making a call.
>
>
>
> So, a question for the illuminati on HT:  how does the reliability of cell
> towers in remote locations during power outages compare with that of
> copper, and is the reliability for data similar to that for phone service
> for each?   During an extended power outage, are towers more likely to be
> available than copper, or less?  My recollection from past extended outages
> was that we did have cell phone service, but it would be great to have at
> least a sample of more than one, if not a white paper about deployed power
> fault tolerance.
>
>
>
> Happy summer!
>
>
>
> Charlie
>
>
>
>
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