Yep. What you experienced is exactly what I expected. And yes, sms MAY make it when a call will not. In SAR demos we tell people, lost in the woods, if cell doesn't work, send a message, hold the phone as high as you can and slowly move it a couple feet back and forth.
I do lots of public service events in the Alleghenies (the PA portion of the Appalachians) where cell towers are either non-existant, far away or hidden by another hill. I know this is off topic but if it saves a life, so be it. When in this kind of area, TURN THE PHONE OFF WHEN YOU DON"T NEED IT. My battery goes down in3-4 hours in the woods where in my home area it stays up for nearly 30 hours. It goes on high power hunting for a tower that is not there. If you are planning to use a cell for emergencies, have an alternate way to charge it. I have a home made 8 AA cell pack with a cigarette lighter well that I carry - I can do a couple recharges. It will also operate my ham radio Hand held for days which is far better to get me out. BTW if you are using a GPS, take at least 3 sets of spare batteries. Other good things, a whistle, a mirror (to check your hair - you want to look good for the searchers - grin), a garbage bag for an emergency poncho and water. If you can read a compass and map they are good but if you don't know what magnetic north is, take a class if you plan to be in the wooded areas. It is also good to carry a snake bite kit, .38 and 9MM ones are great. The woods are fun. Ralph Brandt -----Original Message----- From: Luke S. Crawford [mailto:l...@prgmr.com] Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2012 3:26 PM To: NANOG list Subject: Re: VoIP vs POTS (was Re: Operation Ghost Click) On Thu, May 03, 2012 at 10:59:47AM -0400, Brandt, Ralph wrote: > One of the first things cellular companies can do is stop overselling > cellular. The second is end or raise the price significantly on > unlimited plans, both voice and data. Go to what the landlines called, > USS, that is you pay for every minute.... Even if that charge is small, > it will drive usage down. > > Otherwise on a bad day people will die waiting for the yackers to get > off the call phone so they can call 911. Hopefully it will not be on > VOIP and the internet is down. A few years back, I was working late on the top floor of one of the Yahoo mission college buildings during an earthquake. It felt really dramatic; I was on the 9th floor and the lights were swinging back and forth and yeah. So, I went outside (who knows how bad it was) figured out it wasn't that bad, and so before going home, I decided to call some people to tell them I was okay. Of course, it was as you describe, I couldn't get through. what did I do? I sent a text message. It got through and I got an answer back in about the usual amount of time it takes someone to respond to a sms text. It seems like SMS might be a reasonable backup during these periods of high load.