Phone networks struggle in Hurricane Katrina's wake

Wed Aug 31 04:16:40 UTC 2005

On Tue, Aug 30, 2005 at 09:12:51PM -0400, Richard A Steenbergen wrote:
> 
> > >>"In this age of cheap commoditized consumer electronics and 
> > >>advanced mobile technology, why can't all the people of a city make 
> > >>contact during an emergency?
> > >
> > >Simple: it's too expensive.
> > >
> > >Keep this in mind when trading in your POTS service for VoIP service 
> > >over the internet. Discounting the local loop which is often the 
> > >same in both cases, POTS is extremely reliable while VoIP over the 
> > >public internet, well, isn't. But apparently people that switch to 
> > >VoIP don't mind the reduced likelihood of being able to make calls 
> > >during the next large scale emergency.
> > 
> > Yes!  I agree 100%.   The key words in that above statement were 
> > "cheap commoditized." The reason satellite phones work in big 
> > disaster areas (other than the fact  that the entire infrastructure 
> > in the affected area is comprised of a  solar powered satellite and a 
> > subscriber's hand set with a remote base station(s) somewhere else in 
> > the world) is simple;   not everyone and their cousin has one to use.
> 
> Did I miss the memo announcing the Slashdot commentary section had been 
> extended to the NANOG mailing list? It is one thing to expand on a story 
> with useful insights, but this entire thread is just restating the obvious 
> for the sake of hearing your own voice (or the digital equivalent 
> thereof). If I wanted to read the uninformed reactions of random people to 
> random news stories wondering why cell phone circuits fill up during 
> natural disasters I would go to slashdot and click "Read More...". This 
> stuff doesn't even come close to being NANOG worthy, let alone on-topic or 
> appropriate.
> 
> Note: nothing personal to those being quoted.

Richard,

I couldn't agree with you more, I've been concidering unsubscribing from
the day I subscribed.  The reaction to your post was even worse then the
messages themselves.  Perhaps it is time to leave.

Michael
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