State Says Wireless Industry Built Unreliable System, Unable To Withstand Simple Power Outages
Written by 991KBU on May 8, 2019
The State of California is condemning cable … cellphone and wireless companies … for failing to plan how to keep vital communications up during power outages.
It’s an obvious reality that cell phones don’t work when the power goes out … a
And with the power company planning to turn off the in heavy winds … that creates the danger that people cannot get emergency warnings or communicate during wind storms.
The California Public Utilities Commission has just released a report that blames the communications companies for failing to take obvious steps during power outages … such as allowing customers from any company to “roam” onto competitors systems when power outages cripple their equipment.
In the deadly wildfires of October 2018 …the state says hundreds of cell sites went off line … and statewide 72 thousand calls to 9-1-1 failed.
The Los Angeles County emergency services coordinator said our wireless network is just not built to survive disasters … cell sites do not have resiliency in the form of power backup.
Communication failures during such calamities are common … with lives being lost as a result.
The CPUC report blames wireless companies for failing to release detailed information about how communication providers manage outages … and what type of temporary restoration equipment providers have and how they deploy it.
And the state why cellphone companies fail to “open up roaming” for all phones to use any network during emergencies … such as allowing A-T and T phones to bypass a dead A-T and T tower and use the Verizon network.
The state says the greatest obstacle toward a more reliable communications grid has been a law passed 10 years ago …
After heavy lobbying by the state’s big communcations company … the legislature and governor ruled that digital communications cannot be regulated by the C P U C.
That ban includes both internet or digital landline service.
The argument was that Voice Over Internet Protocol and wireless data industry needed freedom from regulations … to get on their feet.
That freedom has meant the industry had free reign to build a system that fails when the power goes out.
That law expires this year.
The C P U C report says … in essence … good riddance.
That state report has infuriated the state’s wireless phone industry.
They say its full of inaccuracies.
AT and T … Sprint … Verizon and T-Mobile have filed a joint legal motion to not only fight the report’s conclusions … but to have it stricken from the C P U C’s record completely.
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