The Daring Dufas wrote:
LouB wrote:
wrote:
LouB wrote:
Yabut a cell phone system can be easily overloaded in a big emergency.
If you can't get through, emergency services isn't going to have
anyone to send to help you anyway. Best to wait until things calm down
if you can. If you can't, put your head between your legs and kiss
your ass goodbye...
Not necessarily so. Cell circuits get overload with a zillion "are
you OK" or "I am OK" calls having nothing to do with NEEDING help.
Regular circuits do also.
Lou
A little programming could block 90% of trivial
calls allowing only 911 calls to go through. It
could be an interesting twist to giving more
control of the network over to FEMA for emergencies.
And then there is the law of unintended consequences. Cell systems can
prioritize traffic but they don't. Lets say there is an emergency of
some sort and you are trapped. The all knowing and powerful FEMA workers
are yammering away on their prioritized phones and your phone no longer
works because it doesn't have the right priority.
I know that at one time, the national phone system
could be basically taken over by the federal
government during The Cold War. If I'm not mistaken,
the feds have their own separate network now. All
that extra fiber that was run during The Internet
boom and bust hasn't gone to waste.
TDD