Interesting People mailing list archives
IP: some additional info on U.S. Considers Restricting Cellphone Use in Disasters
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2001 13:19:27 -0500
From: "Dan Wing" <dwing () cisco com> To: <dave () farber net> Dave, Cellular networks already have support for this via "Access Overload Class" (search on google). It is not widely used, however, and I don't believe any cellular providers actually support it. However, its intent is that specific phones would receive call-completion priority when the cellular network is running at capacity. Those specific phones would be programmed appropriately and used by police, government, and emergency personnel. Likewise, the PSTN has similar sorts of circuits for government agencies and some critical private and quasi-private industries. Part of the difficulty is determining who should have such phones. Should all the staffers of CNN's Atlanta headquarters have such phones (to get the news sent to the populace)? NY Times staffers and printers? The company that delivers newsprint to the NY Times printing centers? Something else to remember is that only a few years ago all GPS signals were incorrect by hundreds of feet -- this was done on purpose by the US Government to prevent enemies from using GPS to target weapons. DoD GPS receivers are able to correct for this distortion of the GPS signals. However, during the persian gulf war it was found that many troops were using over-the-counter GPS receivers (which can't correct the signal) instead of DoD GPS receivers. Instead of purchasing 100s or 1000s of DoD GPS receivers, the government temporarily (and eventually permanently) allowed the GPS signals to be accurate so the correction wasn't necessary. I can't imagine that distribution of cellular phones with "priority" access using either AOC or this new "disable the cellular system" would actually be any better than the military's experience with GPS. One other factiod is the Israeli army prohibits their troops from carrying cellular phones because the signals emitted by the phones can be detected -- thus detecting troop locations -- and the network itself can become overloaded or easily jammed. Thus, if troops become reliant on cellular phones, that network will be destroyed at times of war (or terrorist action). -d
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- IP: some additional info on U.S. Considers Restricting Cellphone Use in Disasters David Farber (Dec 13)