more on Katrina and the folly of trusting cell phones

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Andrew Seybold <andy () 4mobility com>
Date: September 1, 2005 11:54:23 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: RE: [IP] Katrina and the folly of trusting cell phones


Dave--this is a great message, and should be listened to by all of the
politicians who constantly put pressure on their communications experts
to get rid of their "dedicated and expensive" two-way radio systems in
favor or cell service.

Cell phones, even those with PTT capabilities are great of off-loading
non-essential traffic from the public safety networks but it is these
networks that must be in place in order to provide mission critical
communications in times such as these. While some of these systems are
down and many of the people in the field have no where to recharge their
batteries, these problems will be corrected before most of the cell
service is back on line--and the cell service does not give these
agencies priority service which they need.

Another not, I have not seen anything at all in the press talking about
the one solid form of communications into and out of these areas--the
dedicated Amateur radio operators who are assisting local, state and
federal workers by providing needed communications services both in the
region and also to other parts of the US. I have been monitoring the
"net" that was established even prior to the storm and this wide-area
net is passing health-and-welfare traffic into and out of the region,
The Red Cross makes extensive use of these ham's in order to try and
locate the missing for their relatives.

These folks go into harms way as volunteers and in cases such as this
are really the first line of communications established. It is a shame
that they don't get credit for their work.

Andy (W6AMS)

-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:dave () farber net]
Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2005 3:37 AM
To: Ip Ip
Subject: [IP] Katrina and the folly of trusting cell phones



Begin forwarded message:

From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
Date: September 1, 2005 12:27:52 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Cc: lauren () vortex com
Subject: Katrina and the folly of trusting cell phones



Dave,

In watching the interviews from the areas devastated by the aftermath
of Katrina, one warning comes through loud and clear, and while it's
not a new one, it's still critically important: Trusting cell phones
to work in many emergency situations can be dangerous or fatal.

Over and over we hear people saying how their cell phones became
useless (except perhaps for snapping photos).  And it wasn't a
"simple" matter of call traffic overloading.  Even in areas where
equipment wasn't flooded, power cutoffs led to microcell batteries
running down within a couple of days.  With so much reliance on
these small, seemingly ubiquitous cell sites, power failures can turn
regional cellular networks into largely useless hardware in short
order.

It's particularly upsetting to hear people noting that this agency or
that organization depended more than ever on inexpensive cell phones
rather than the expensive dedicated radio equipment that they used to
use, and when the cellular network went down their communications
were disrupted in major ways.

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren () pfir org or lauren () vortex com or lauren () eepi org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
   - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, EEPI
   - Electronic Entertainment Policy Initiative - http://www.eepi.org
Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
DayThink: http://daythink.vortex.com



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