Cell phones in a power outage?

In the event of a breakdown of basic services, and an extended electrical outage, would cellphones be a viable means of communication?
Sheena:confused

 

Hi Sheena, I would say yes, as long as you keep that battery charged... I have used mine during a power outage, and keep it charged.. That is the main thing with cell phones, if the battery is down, they are useless..

Keep it charged, and you are good in case of an emergency

 

TeeCee, Thanks.
Now, what if we have a more extended and general breakdown, and the cell phone companies actually close down?
Sheena

 

I wouldn't worry so much about that, Sheena.. I thought you were talking of a power outage.. Not a major meltdown.. I doubt if the towers would be affected..... Besides, they need the buisness...
Just keep your cell phone charged

 

I am wondering about what would happen in a major breakdown also. If the towers aren't sabotaged, why couldn't one still use the cellphone?
Sheena

 

if the towers aren't sabotaged, the satellites are still up in the sky and everyone's still working for their respective cell companies, the only way you COULDN'T use your cell phone is if you were asleep or the cell phone's battery is exhausted, as TeeCee said.

 

Hi Cake.
In my second post I asked if you could use them if the cell phone companies closed down in an extended outage and general breakdown.
Sheena

 

maybe not. never actually thought about that, but it's very possible.

 

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/techchron/detail?blogid=19&entry_id=22250

Interesting topic,as currently it seems cell towers don't have any backup power,to provide 8 hours of backup power for emergency use the batteries would have to be something like 2 tons "just repeating what I've read." worth but it depends on the power of the relay.

I don't think it's worth it especially over here the weathers pretty tame,the only need would be in a situation such as Katrina when people need help AND the phone lines are down but there are that many calls during disasters it jams up the network and stops it working anyway.

Anyway I think most calls during a major power outage are to tell the emergency services there's been a power outage :-D

 

Well, Rikky, you make a valid point.. If all the cell towers got clogged up, our cell phones would be of no use to us... Hmmm.

Yeah, I think that would happen, as everyone would be trying too call the power co. to report the outage at precisely the same time, Hmmmm.. Something to ponder, for sure.. Just for safety sake, I do keep mine charged, just in case

As for situations such as Katrina, we should all be prepared

 

Couldn't electric generators, wind generators, ect., be rigged so that some of the towers could still be used in the event of long term breakdown of services? Could the need for sim cards, and other identifiers be disabled so that folks could coordinate just based on frequencies? I don't know, I don't even have a cell phone and don't know how to use one, but in a long term emergency I just wondered if it was necessary to let all the towers go to waste. However, as I study this, it does seem as though its alot of trouble to try to use this system. For example, how much range does each tower have and is it possible to increase each tower's range so you don't have to power so many? What would be the best communication system to use in this situation, where you might want something with range to try and get people reunified. Sheena

 

i guess i'm just too much of a pragmatist to worry about it. "what cannot be changed must be endured" Plato although, if i was a member of an emergency response team, i'd have other options.

 

Sheena, you use a cell phone the same way as you use a regular phone. You just have to charge the batteries.. But, if you can't use a cell phone, because of some catastrophic chaos, then I doubt if anything would work.. Just my opinion, because I am not an engineer, nor do I worry about such things happening.. rolleyes

One would have to buy a generator, and IF that scenario happened, no one could afford one, because the demand would increase, and the price would skyrocket..rolleyes

To summarize, don't worry about something you have no control over. Kinda like, Y2K, the year 2000, none of our computers were supposed to be working... Didn't happen... Like I said, don't worry yourself about things you have no control over...

 

Hi TeeCee,
I haven't mentioned being worried in any of my posts, hon. I am just wanting to know about these things.
sheena

 

landlines and satellite phones should work in these extreme circumstances. As for cell phones, even if the towers were up and running and the companies were open, it would be most likely that the network would be jammed by the extreme traffic of everyone calling at once (since there would be catastrophe), therefore paralyzing the system itself.

Get yourself a satellite phone for such severe measures, keep it turned off , fully charged , and a spare battery in your car or somehwere that you can carry around (in ur desk if ur at work as an example).

Cheers
WK

 

Hi Sheena, my mistake, I apologize.. But if something like that were to happen, we do have First Responders for emergencies, that are much more versed than us regular folk to deal with such things.. I just let them do their thing. Glad to hear you are not worried, that is good

I think you might get more info from the dept.of defense, if you are serious, and see what they have on hand for such emergencies... Might put you at ease, anyway.

 

if you're planning on doing something specific with the info, you might want to ask a cell professional. not sure if there are any of them here, but could be.

i might want to know more about how to write fractal programs for my pc or old graphing calculators, but that might not be something most people here would be able to help me with (no offense to any of you who do know this stuff; i'll just look for you on an advanced mathematics forum). although i really don't want to write any for my pc and i already know how to write them for my graphing calculators.

 

Well, wassimk, I would say the same about satellite phones. The demand would be SO HIGH, nobody could afford one.. I know I can't, and there isn't an emergency YET... I stand by my cell phone. It hasn't failed me yet...

 

Hi TeeCee,
No problem. I see where you're coming from. I am a curious sort, like to pull things apart and see what makes them run. Also, in this economy, and its implications are world wide; lots of folks are preparing for low level to high level breakdowns of services. Google "how to store food in an emergency" and see what happens. At this point I can't find anyone who can agree with anyone else as to how the economy is going to be, and the fall out from it. So to me, maybe being aware of options to tide oneself over might not be a bad idea.
What about ham radios, solar powered, or with electric generators, enhanced by fm stations???
Sheena

 

Hi Sheena, as far as I know, and this is just my own personal knowledge, there are very few Ham radio operators now.. There used to be, and I knew one, but he passed away... As far as preparing for the worst, no harm in that... Just don't worry yourself sick, is all..

Maybe check out history, in particular the Great Depression, and see what you can learn from that.. Sure, they didn't have cell phones, but they did have a rough time, and we will too. (if we live that long) Nobody really knows what will happen in the future, or next week for that matter..

As far as "how to store food in an emergency", I have three freezers, and grow my own veges, as I don't trust the stuff in the stores now. All the recalls and such... Just look at some good trustworthy sites, and maybe even google the Great Depression, and you will have tons of good reading, and remember this: "Those who don't learn from the past, are doomed to repeat it" (Courtesy of my History teacher)

There is a lot of info on the Great Depression, and I think you would benefit from reading about it.. :wave Nothing wrong with a little knowledge

 

Actually back in my home country we had our shares of disasters, power outages, bombings and such stuff. at the moment of the catastrophe and few hours after, landlines and cell phones were extremely hard to use, especially cell phones, with landlines you could get lucky.

However it never affected the internet (depends how you're connected ofcourse), which can give you an alternative with the whole VoIP...

but as far as how costly satellite phones are.. .you would be surprised how cheap their getting, am not sure about the exact price atm , but i remember 2 years ago when i was working in Congo, it was affordable .... (in such countries you need it more than my home country hehe)

Hope you never find yourself in such a situation though..

Cheers
WK

 

hi wassimk, I hope so too, but still, I can only control so much, and if the land lines are down, and the cell towers are down, I will just have to do the best I can with what I've got... Where is your home country you speak of?

As far as Internet, we only have dial up available, so sure, that would be out too, if everything else is out. But again, it is all "ifs" and we cannot base our life on "ifs" ..... can't live on "ifs" either... I also couldn't stop a war if it happened, either... Just have to play the hand I am dealt...

 

the last time i used a satellite phone it belonged to the US Army on an EPA Superfund site i worked at. didn't need it to call out of the country, though. EVERYONE belonging to the Chemical Weapons Treaty Organization (mostly Russians, at the time) were already there. got kind of annoying with that, a landline, 2 radios & 2 cell phones to keep dealing with.

i only have a nice iPhone now (no landline or cable internet phone) with a wireless router to get through my 1920s solid masonry so my internet connection stays solid 24/7 and so i can d/l things that are more than 10mb...like Myst, which is over 500mb. decided against that cuz i already have the cd for my pc.

 

I originally come from Lebanon... if you've heard of it

Now living in Germany though... but how come you only got dial up? you do realize that DSL doesnt count as dial up though right? (no one uses dial up anymore... 56k?)

 

i hear ya... long live Iphones

I wonder why ppl get extremely annoyed of having an Microsoft engineer carrying around an Apple phone... i mean is it really that weird?

 

LOL makes perfect sense to me.

 

Hi wassimk, yes, I have heard of Lebanon, and if memory serves me right, it is a rough place.. Germany must be a lot calmer.

Hey, I don't have DSL, I DO have a dial up connection with a 56K modem! Yes, they do still exist! Remember, I live in the U.S.A. We still use 56K dial up modems! :-D I am serious, yes, we do.. Very common here, as that is all we have for Internet.

If DSL was available to me, I would have it:-D

 

absolute truth. if you don't live in a large enough city/town, or a close-in suburb, dial-up is all there is until the population increases in that area or you can afford to pay for someone to bring cable/fiber optics out to you.

in less populated areas, DSL isn't even an option. still plenty of wide-open spaces here. just a short, quick drive to the west (past Golden) and you're heading up into the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. drive east towards Kansas, past DIA, and you're out on the flat plains where there's not much of anything.

 

Pretty weird when they were expecting having a baby.:-D