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Makes me think, could this scenario happen in the continental US? I mean could a large earthquake or wildfire knock out cell service for SF or Seattle? Maybe a
by carabiner 3y ago
Makes me think, could this scenario happen in the continental US? I mean could a large earthquake or wildfire knock out cell service for SF or Seattle? Maybe a hurricane affecting a Florida city? Or are there enough cell towers outside of the area to make it unlikely? We think of this feature for wilderness rescues, but this is the first time I've heard of it used in a disaster affected urban area.
- olyjohn 3y agoWhen we had the Nisqually 6.8 earthquake back in the early 2000s, all the circuits went busy immediately. Cell phones and land lines were all busy. Nobody could get through to anybody. There wasn't really much infrastructure damage, and it wasn't a deadly quake by any means.
- Ancapistani 3y ago> could this scenario happen in the continental US? I don't see why not. We certainly have wildfires in various places on the mainland. There are also a number of potential causes of very large natural disasters lurking out there - from the Yellowstone supercaldera to the New Madrid earthquake zone, to the La Palma tsunami.
- spike021 3y agoI have friends who live in Cupertino, and when an ISP like Comcast goes down in one or two neighborhoods for maintenance, the cell network (not even Comcast but like AT&T and such) also effectively goes down because everybody and their mother starts tethering or otherwise using their phone data significantly more than normal.
- dandelany 3y agoSure, lower Manhattan lost power & cell service during Hurricane Sandy back in 2012. People were split between lining up around the block for one of the few remaining payphones, and trying to find a spot with line of sight to Brooklyn
- fragmede 3y agoDon't forget about tornadoes. This year they've done $520 million worth of damage, and killed 95 people.