4 ms·

It would be cheaper to develop a system for mass-SMS in a crisis and publicize it than to keep FM/DAB running, and I bet the delivery rate of the crisis message

by dagss 10y ago

It would be cheaper to develop a system for mass-SMS in a crisis and publicize it than to keep FM/DAB running, and I bet the delivery rate of the crisis message would be an order of magnitude higher.

kieranelby 10y ago
Not if the crisis involves mains power outage - cell towers don't generally have backup power so mobile phones will be useless. Edit: Adding generators/batteries to a significant fraction of cell towers is (probably) impractical due to them being bulky, expensive, and attractive to thieves.
- lb1lf 10y ago
  This is not correct in the case of Norway, at least - I believe (mind, believe, I do not know for sure) that telcos are mandated by law to have emergency power supplies available; whenever we have a massive power outage, cell service stays up for hours, if not days afterwards. Them being bulky is a major deterrent to theft, as a lot of our cellphone infrastructure is way out in the boonies and not really accessible unless you REALLY want to get to it...
  - Broken_Hippo 10y ago
    It isn't the Telcos I think about in this situation. It is my own phone batter. Or my spouse's - he has a dying phone with a dying battery, which doesn't always like to hold a charge. I'll be good for a while, sure, but once I'm dead... I'm dead. If something would happen late at night, after I've fiddled with my phone all day, I might start out with very little power. Early in the day, and I could make it last most the weekend.
    - lb1lf 10y ago
      Ah, that figures. Mea culpa. In that case, a $20 power bank should provide at least a couple of full charges - but if you're anything like me, you'll forget to top it up at regular intervals and will find that its capacity is greatly reduced when you need it... :-/ (I cheat; I have a small diesel generator for use during outages - we're typically without utility power a couple of days every winter.
      - douche 10y ago
        Still, any solution based around a smartphone is going to be subpar, compared to the dirt-cheap FM receiver that can run for weeks or months on a couple of ubiquitous AA batteries.
- morsch 10y ago
  If I understand correctly, all cell towers in the US are in fact supposed to have at least 8 hours of backup power. Here's the FCC ruling: http://www.njslom.org/FCC-07-177A1.pdf http://www.njslom.org/FCC-07-177A1.pdf (page 23)
snom380 10y ago
Many municipalities already have that in place (for sending out alerts about water quality etc). The problem with cell towers is that the infrastructure is more brittle with more moving parts. There's been cases where fires, power outages etc in small towns have caused base stations to go offline, cutting whole towns off from communication. Not to mention the recent case where penetration testing done by another operator in Europe accidentally caused the entire cell phone network of the largest operator in Norway to go offline for half a day.
- hvidgaard 10y ago
  If you know the inner workings of the cell phone network, you can't help wonder how it still works so relatively reliable.

by dagss 10y ago

It would be cheaper to develop a system for mass-SMS in a crisis and publicize it than to keep FM/DAB running, and I bet the delivery rate of the crisis message would be an order of magnitude higher.

kieranelby 10y ago

Not if the crisis involves mains power outage - cell towers don't generally have backup power so mobile phones will be useless. Edit: Adding generators/batteries to a significant fraction of cell towers is (probably) impractical due to them being bulky, expensive, and attractive to thieves.

lb1lf 10y ago
This is not correct in the case of Norway, at least - I believe (mind, believe, I do not know for sure) that telcos are mandated by law to have emergency power supplies available; whenever we have a massive power outage, cell service stays up for hours, if not days afterwards. Them being bulky is a major deterrent to theft, as a lot of our cellphone infrastructure is way out in the boonies and not really accessible unless you REALLY want to get to it...
- Broken_Hippo 10y ago
  It isn't the Telcos I think about in this situation. It is my own phone batter. Or my spouse's - he has a dying phone with a dying battery, which doesn't always like to hold a charge. I'll be good for a while, sure, but once I'm dead... I'm dead. If something would happen late at night, after I've fiddled with my phone all day, I might start out with very little power. Early in the day, and I could make it last most the weekend.
  - lb1lf 10y ago
    Ah, that figures. Mea culpa. In that case, a $20 power bank should provide at least a couple of full charges - but if you're anything like me, you'll forget to top it up at regular intervals and will find that its capacity is greatly reduced when you need it... :-/ (I cheat; I have a small diesel generator for use during outages - we're typically without utility power a couple of days every winter.
    - douche 10y ago
      Still, any solution based around a smartphone is going to be subpar, compared to the dirt-cheap FM receiver that can run for weeks or months on a couple of ubiquitous AA batteries.
morsch 10y ago
If I understand correctly, all cell towers in the US are in fact supposed to have at least 8 hours of backup power. Here's the FCC ruling: http://www.njslom.org/FCC-07-177A1.pdf http://www.njslom.org/FCC-07-177A1.pdf (page 23)

snom380 10y ago

Many municipalities already have that in place (for sending out alerts about water quality etc). The problem with cell towers is that the infrastructure is more brittle with more moving parts. There's been cases where fires, power outages etc in small towns have caused base stations to go offline, cutting whole towns off from communication. Not to mention the recent case where penetration testing done by another operator in Europe accidentally caused the entire cell phone network of the largest operator in Norway to go offline for half a day.

hvidgaard 10y ago
If you know the inner workings of the cell phone network, you can't help wonder how it still works so relatively reliable.