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Sometimes you have to drive through Death Valley to get to other places and cell reception is kind of important in a place like that. Imagine having a baby in y
by todd3834 7y ago
Sometimes you have to drive through Death Valley to get to other places and cell reception is kind of important in a place like that. Imagine having a baby in your car, it breaks down with no cell reception and it's 130F temperatures outside
- dima55 7y agoIf this is of concern to you, don't take your baby there when it's 130F outside
- todd3834 7y agoYeah that’s one way to deal with it. Another is if there is cell reception then it’s not such a big deal because you can call someone if it happens. Definitely two possible solutions.
- ethbro 7y agoThen I guess my last thought would be "Gee, it was pretty dumb to drive through Death Valley with no spares, supplies, or an emergency beacon."
- streblo 7y agoSo when people inevitably do it, they should just die?
- mirimir 7y agoIt's a tough question. Nobody "should" die. But maybe improving cellular coverage in Death Valley would actually increase fatalities. Because it'd feel safer. Or at least, it'd probably increase rescue costs. And there are arguably better uses for resources than trying to make Death Valley a safe vacation venue.
- hnaccy 7y agoYes.
- ethbro 7y agoI'm not in favor of making the world perfectly safe for idiots. There's a line. You step over the line, you're responsible for yourself. Driving to inhospitable and/or remote wilderness areas without preparation is over that line. Plus, a sat beacon is $120. So people don't really have an excuse.
- inflatableDodo 7y agoThey are very likely to and can hardly claim to have been uninformed of the risk. It isn't called 'Life Valley'. edit - doesn't mean putting up some radio cover is a bad idea, however I suspect it is not some panacea against badly planned road adventures. If you are capable of venturing forth into Death Valley without much preparation, you are more than capable of managing to forget a phone.
- todd3834 7y agoIf you know there is no cell reception and you do it anyways you might have a point but I thought we were just talking about reasons why cell service could be a good thing. Wanting cell reception doesn’t really make someone dumb.
- walrus01 7y agoIf you plan to go somewhere that leaving the main highway, and mechanical failure of your vehicle means there is a high likelihood of death, you should be going in groups of more than one vehicle and taking an Iridium satellite phone with you. Expecting cellular coverage in places that are literally "the middle of fucking nowhere" is not reasonable. Remote parts of the western US states are too sparsely populated for this to make economic sense for cellular carriers. People spend a thousand bucks on all sorts of frivolous stuff. For way less than that you can buy a gently used Iridium 9555 on eBay and a few new batteries for it, and a 20W folding solar panel.
- khuey 7y agoIf it doesn't make economic sense then why is AT&T asking the Feds to be allowed to build the towers there?
- todd3834 7y agoWho said anything about leaving the main highway? Is AT&T trying to provide signal where they know nobody will ever go? That sounds odd. I assumed we were talking about places humans go
- walrus01 7y agoAll of the death valley fatalities I'm aware of are from people who left the main highway. I've driven through there. As long as you stick to the main, paved roads, there is sufficient car traffic that it is highly unlikely you're going to die from a car breakdown.
- todd3834 7y agoMaybe so but cell service would still be nice.