See entire at:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/200...er-backups.html

Excerpt:

After Hurricane Katrina, the FCC launched an inquiry into how to improve first responder communications during a crisis of similar magnitude. In June of 2006, the panel identified power outages as one of the top causes of the life-costing breakdown of communications that took place during the disaster.

"The unique conditions in Katrina's aftermath—substantial flooding, widespread, extended power outages, and serious security issues—were responsible for damaging or disrupting communications service to a huge geographic area for a prolonged period of time," the Katrina panel observed. As a result, thousands of police, fire, and medical responders had to resort to radio communication via three mutual aid licenses. The FCC urged service providers to beef up their power backup systems.

In May of 2007, the Commission went further, issuing an Order establishing the "backup power rule," under which all carriers and mobile services of a certain size had to maintain sufficient emergency reserve power to keep central offices going for 24 hours, and keep remote switches, digital loop carrier systems, and cell phone sites going for eight hours.

Mobile service companies protested that the agency had not asked for public comment on the decision, and that it would cost too much to maintain these backup systems. The FCC was mostly unmoved by these protests. "We find that the benefits of ensuring sufficient emergency backup power, especially in times of crisis involving possible loss of life or injury, outweighs the fact that carriers may have to spend resources, perhaps even significant resources, to comply with the rule," the agency concluded in October of 2007.

My takeaway: Don't rely on 1 mode of communications, ever. In the fire company, we have AT LEAST three different ways to communicate, and if it's a large scale, we end up with 5 communications paths thanks to the county emergency communications truck.
(in case you're wondering -

1. 500 Mhz Motorola ASTRO digital trunked county radio system
2. 500 Mhz Conventional Analog (point to point) fallback
3. Cellular
4. Satellite Communications (they have a mini-earth station on the big command center, has Voice + Date + Local 500 Mhz Repeater intertie)
5. Landline. Yes, good old copper. Coax, actually. I found out that they can basically connect to any copper, and in a pinch, call in a giant spool of copper and just run a new line back to any existing (surviving?) point of the landline infrastructure. Amazing what you can do with 50,000 of twisted pair.

While I think it's a great idea to provide more robust backup capability, with a large system like a cellular provider, I also have to wonder at what point things become economically counter-productive? I'm usually in favor of sensible regulation rather than industry "self-regulation" but I'm sensitive to the realities of running a business in a competitive environment. It's a different situation when a company is basically a monopoly.

This post reminded me of an old post of mine about a new technology called SkySite--using disposable balloons carrying portable cell sites as they drift over a state. In the original article, the company says that it can replace the 1,100 cell towers required to comprehensively cover a rural region with just 3 balloons aloft at one time.

Imagine a system where there's some widespread disaster like a hurricane or major earthquake. The wireless companies start deploying these balloons, providing 24 hour service that is completely independent of any damage, flooding, fires, etc. on the ground. I don't know if it's practical to try and totally replace the physical cell tower system with these balloons over a more densely populated area, but if say, the system is pre-programmed to only accept a small subset of phones used by first responders, emergency management, certain hospital staff, etc., I think the technology can already handle that load.

Another technology that has always interested me is "mesh" technology--or self-organizing networks. Imagine a situation where when cell towers are down and you're trying to send a text message to your wife, who is on a business trip, that you and kids are fine. With mesh technology, when you hit send, your phone will try to establish a connection first with a local tower, and if one isn't availabe, try to connect to another cell phone to pass the text message to. Your message will hop from phone to phone until a working cell tower is contacted, perhaps even outside the disaster area, and from that point, your message is delivered normally. Being a store-and-forward technology, if no tower or other cell phone is within range, your message is simply stored until something becomes available. Anyways, just a couple of alternative ideas.

Don't worrk, the .gov will bail them out when that happens

Most sites already have some battery or generator back-up. Cost involved vs. revenue generated hasn't been that big of a problem for the telco's.

The C.O.'s, remote switches, and cell site shelters are not waterproof. Once they are under water (or even very humid) the electronics inside fail. You can supply all the power you want, but if nothing is on it won't take much.

I work in the industry and can't remember seeing a site (of any carrier) without battery backup. Only 1 or 2 carriers in my area, NY metro, have fixed gensets at the sites. Mostly the old wireline carrier who built with gensets from the get-go. I prefer the gensets integrated into the cells personally.

There are 2 other issues here though that are outside the control of the carriers.

You can have all the backup power you need on site, but still go off the air 'cause your backhaul fiber from the LEC or whoever has defective/dead/nonesistant backup power. I have rolled a generator to a cell down for power only to have a dead battery in an underground fiber amp that I can't get at keep the cell down.

Even if you want to add a genset, considering that in many areas of the country the carriers are so insanely regulated that you need a building permit to replace a broken antenna, or even to climb a tower to investigate an issue, it could take 18 months and hearings, fees, etc. for each site you needed to upgrade. In the end after all this you can end up denied anyway for fear the genset may "make noise" if it's running. Also, any change to a lease with your landlord is not going to typically be free or easy. Many rooftop sites in the City of NY are limited to a fixed percentage of roof space, so without the understanding and cooperation of zoning/regilating AHJ you can't add one anyway.

It's not as simple as the cell carriers don't want to spend money (that's just a small part of it )To insure emergency coverage you really need everyone involved with the issue to be able to see the big, comprenhensive picture, realize the benefit, and work cooperatively to make it happen.

Let us not forget the sites that are on microwave back-haul. mostly rural sites with no fiber access. I have seen many of them drop due to issues that way also.

In mine country the kind of communication depends on the layer of command, but the system are based on the following options:

1. We have radio's with both trunk and direct modes. The direct mode does have very limited range, making it only suitable for use on a relative small scenes.
2. Lots of cellulars, depending on the public system.
3. Pagers
4. landlines both phone and fax
5. "noodnet" a independent landline system for emergency's, also both phone and fax. I did see some phones which didn't work because they didn't hook it on properly or somebody swapped the fax with the phone wires...
6. Internet. The new network based communication systems, but people still do not know how to get most out of it...
7. Satellite communication, but i doubt many people know how to use it. Really complex systems on the command unit, with about a dozen wireless hand units connected to a single base unit. I didn't get the manual...

With mine experiences, i have another lesson on communication: Don't forget to regularly test and train with backup systems!

Scenarios like Katrina remind some of the EMS service planners that it's helpful to incorporate Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES) into their disaster planning. Ham radio can provide local and long distance communication, point to point if needed, and using repeaters and networks as available. It's interesting to note that most volunteer run ham repeaters have better backup power and contingency operating modes than some of their commercial counterparts.

Unfortunately, there's a lot of resistance to drilling with folks that are not from within the organization sometimes. When TSHTF is not when you want to learn how to operate with mixed modes and across organizations. After Katrina, the local Hams, and supporting Amateurs around the country were doing local comms for police/fire in the area, and also provided health and welfare messages to/from families across the country before some of the "official" disaster response services even had their own local communications set up.

Live and learn,

Ron (N1GFS)

Cell phone companies are often highly motivated to maintain a very high percentage of service. Last cell site, one of their hubs, I worked on was making something on the order of $150,000 an hour in charges.

It was also highly redundant. Four separate fiber lines, 20 pair copper(mostly used for control and reporting) and a buttload (the tech's term) of microwave channels. It had two backup generators each supplied with better than three days propane. It was also the site where the company stored their generator trailers so there were always another two or three ready to go.

All that said we were called into correct an issue with their power transfer system. Power went out and failed to start the sequence of transferring to batteries as hold over until the transfer was completed.

The batteries were charged, the generators ready to go but the site died. A faulty relay brought the whole thing to a halt. A site tech, who just happened to be on site, was able to restore power after a couple of hours of fruitless consultations with the senior techs and high tech tweaking. This was accomplished by whacking the power transfer control unit case with a hammer.

Lesson being that even with all the care and redundancy in the world things don't always work. These systems are designed, built and operated by people. Failure is not an option. It is an inevitability. That was a very well prepared site with a lot of redundancy. I have seen a lot of other sites that were far less prepared and/or the backup systems not well maintained. Corporations often slack off on maintenance and testing of emergency systems when money gets tight.

In a major emergency cell phones may, or may not, work.

There are a few things you can do to slant the odds in your favor:
Selecting a cell service provider go with one of the larger names. Off brand providers often are using a major provider's equipment. When things get tight the people who own the equipment will favor their own customers. Smaller providers that use their own equipment often are using older and less well maintained systems. Some have problems maintaining reception when things are normal.

Also look at the coverage areas. Major providers are often localized with a majority of their network located in a specific region. A major provider with most of its towers in the SE is going to be more spotty in the NE.

Select your phone for reliability, signal strength and clarity. Good battery life is important but many of the figures published are based on the phone operating at the lowest power setting with an intact cell tower close by. One of my friends still uses a 'brick', a four pound base unit about the size of a book with a handset on a coiled cord, simply because it has a much higher power output and it accepts a variety of external antennas. With this unit he can send and receive in remote areas and work around dead cell sites.

When selecting a cell phone look for one with an external antenna connection so you can hook up a larger antenna.

Operation at maximum power to reach beyond disabled cell towers a cell phone is going to eat batteries so have a spare ready to go. If you use rechargeable batteries you need a system set up to keep your batteries charged so they are ready to go when time comes. An adapter that will feed power to your phone from AAs and a set or two of lithium batteries is a good way to start. A power adapter that will run off your vehicle power system adds options. Even a small automotive battery will keep a cell phone going for a long time.

Having some way to recharge batteries is good in the long term. Fold-up solar panels are okay if there is dependable, strong sunlight. Small hand crank generators can work but make sure you try them out. Some cheap and poorly designed units will break or wear you out after a few minutes use.

Of course having all this stuff won't do you any good if the cell phone doesn't work. Get a good quality unit to start with. Consider having a spare. Most companies will help you set it up so they both use the same number so there are no extra charges.

Consider having dry bags that allow the phones to resist 'the mud, the blood and the beer' while being used. Just to make sure, you might keep one in its skin and inside a sturdy case. Pelican makes a nice line of suitable cases. While your at it the external antenna, spare batteries, adapters and crank generator could all go into the case.

Don't forget to include a pad and pencil in your kit. Under stress the memory can fail. When communications are spotty you want to prioritize messages and write down what you have to say and get the important points out first. You might start with the number of able bodied/injured, present location, intended direction of travel (if any), and when you will try to communicate again if the connection is lost. Come up with your own protocol. Keep in mind that you may only get a few seconds and one try so carefully consider what is important. If the connection holds you can always fill in the blanks further along.

In emergencies IM messages use fewer communications systems resources than voice. In many cases people have been able to get through with short IMs when the voice communication systems were clogged. It may pay to familiarize people you are likely to call with prearranged IM codes. Send older relatives a 'cheat sheet' of common terms and codes ahead of time. Keep a copy in your communications kit. Keep it intuitive and as simple as possible.

But remembe too that land lines can and do fail. What I'm trying to reiterate is that a land line isn't any more relaible than a cell phone. in fact in our old neighborhood land lines were less relaible that cell phone, cable tv, power, etc.