On 2016-02-27, Ed Huntress wrote:
On Fri, 26 Feb 2016 20:35:31 -0800, Larry Jaques
wrote:

[ ... ]

I keep telling people that cellular phones are still not ready for
prime time, despite all the new technologies and nearly ubiquitous
cell towers. My cell phone is used as a last gasp device.

Around here, half of us have given up our landlines. Everybody uses
cell phones for almost everything.

The last two hurricanes cinched it: no landlines, but cell phones were
almost untouched.

While *here* (Washington DC vicinity), when we got hit by the
"derecho" a few years ago (which had power out for three to seven days,
depending on just where in the area you were):

1) Land lines kept working.

2) Cell Phones died as the tower's backup power ran out
(assuming that you could find a power source to charge the
cell phone itself.)

3) FIOS (fiber optic feed) died as soon as the rechargeable battery
in the modem ran out of charge -- unless you had the special
connector for an external battery to run the thing.

4) I don't know whether my T1 net feed worked or not, since I
did not have power for the computers, anyway. :-)

Enjoy,
DoN.

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