VoIP vs POTS (was Re: Operation Ghost Click)

Thu May 3 19:25:52 UTC 2012

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.  