Will Phones "Be There" in a Disaster?

[jon]

Cellphone crash during U2 performance part of a bigger problem, expert says
By Andrea Sands, edmontonjournal.com
June 3, 2011

EDMONTON - Wednesday night’s breakdown of cellphone service as an estimated 65,000 U2 fans at Commonwealth Stadium overloaded communications antennas with calls, texts and tweets underlines a potentially serious problem as demand outstrips network capacity.

“Very soon, it’s going to be a problem not only for a concert night,” said Dhiaa Hussen, a telecommunications engineering technology instructor at NAIT with a PhD in communications engineering.

“This was a very good example for (telecommunications companies) to understand the limitation of their capacity. It was an opportunity for them to see what will happen if we have this kind of explosion in the use of cellphones. The demand is going to be much, much larger.”

Demand for service is growing exponentially across Canada, Telus spokesman Shawn Hall said Thursday. In March 2010, 22 per cent of Telus wireless customers had smartphones. By March of this year the number had increased to 38 per cent.

“The number of text messages sent last year doubled,” Hall said. “With the introduction of the iPhone 4, Android devices, new consumer-oriented BlackBerrys and tablets, wireless data use just exploded.”

Telus is investing in infrastructure needed to keep up with demand, he said. The company will install 80 wireless sites such as cellphone towers and antennas across Alberta this year and spend $650 million in the province, Hall said.

“As a result of our ongoing investment in wireless, events like this are rare where we see network congestion,” he said.

“There was two events going on at the same time — the Vancouver Canucks game with the big goal that happened just before the concert began, as well as the huge number of people gathered at the concert, taking photos and videos and e-mailing them, sending text messages and using social media all at the same time. On a smartphone, that’s all data use, so it really pushed the network because you had so many people jumping on at the same time and using up a lot of bandwidth.”

Telus will look at what happened during the concert and factor it into ongoing planning, Hall said. “This was a pretty spectacularly unique event. That said, there are lots of events happening in Commonwealth. We just recently increased our capacity and have plans to increase it further within the next few months.”

Telus has built-in antennas in buildings where crowds gather for sporting events, concerts and trade shows. A few weeks ago Telus added to the antenna system inside Commonwealth Stadium. More work is scheduled there in the coming months.

“We made sure that we had additional capacity, and in time for the U2 concert — that was actually part of our planning. Even with that capacity that we added just in the past couple of weeks, it wasn’t enough and we are adding more,” Hall said

The company’s network is engineered to prioritize 911 calls, he added.

St. John Ambulance, which provided first-aid at the U2 show, had no problems related to faltering cell service, said Sandi Misselbrook, manager of community services for St. John Ambulance. “We have hand-held radios we use to communicate.”

Numerous cellphone customers, served by different phone companies, wrote messages to the Edmonton Journal and posted comments on Twitter about poor cell coverage during the concert.

Fiona Pynn said she and her husband, Darin, had service on their Telus phones when they first got into the stadium. However, they moved about two sections over and both their phones stopped working.

“Then we heard some people a couple rows behind us saying their phones weren’t working either, but yet the person sitting next to us who was also on Telus, her phone was working fine,” Pynn said.

“After we were coming out of Commonwealth, I fell off a curb and really scraped up my knee so we were contemplating calling a taxi but, obviously, we wouldn’t have been able to.”

The couple’s cell service reappeared as they walked to catch a bus.

“I wasn’t impressed,” she said.

Journal Reporter Ben Gelinas covered the concert. He had planned to send his stories and photos to the office via e-mail on his BlackBerry using Rogers wireless. Gelinas said he moved around the stadium where there was some spotty coverage that would disappear before he could send data.

“I found myself walking through the crowd with my phone in my air,” he said.

“One thing went through, randomly.”

The choked-out signal forced him to leave Commonwealth and walk several blocks, where he found a 3G signal, sent his work, then lost the signal again.

Rick Lee, 30, said he was pleased at the lack of service while he was on the floor during the show. It eliminated distractions, Lee said.

“I just thought it was awesome,” Lee said. “We could all focus on the show. I didn’t mind it at all.”

[jon]

This story again brings up the very important question: is there enough phone line capacity to handle a disaster that effects large numbers of people?

Although landline will always have more excess capacity than cellular networks, which is why I cannot understand anyone who would not have a landline in their home for emergencies, I have to wonder if telcos have not cut back on the amount of excess capacity as a way to cut costs.

As I understand it, 911 calls get priority over other phone calls on both landlines and cellular phone services. But that is not good enough, as 911 could see an explosive growth in usage if people cannot make calls to numbers other than 911. For example, a non-emergency fire, police or ambulance call would be dialed as 911 after a frustrated caller is unable to call the non-emergency number. And 911 services are not wired or staffed to handle those kind of volumes of calls.

I question how well prepared we are for a disaster that effects a large number of people. In two ways. Whether our phone services can take the increased call load. And, equally important, if we have educated our population about the importance of eliminating unnecessary calls during a disaster.

And I'm not talking about unlikely disasters. It could be something as simple as a Prairie Snowstorm. Anything that hits thousands of people at the same time.

[Mike Cleaver]

As someone who does emergency preparedness seminars for radio and tv stations, emphasizing the fact that most things won't work during a disaster such as the much anticipated "big one" in the Vancouver area, they're not really prepared to spend any money.
You'd be surprised at the number of radio and tv stations that don't have emergency power both at studios and transmitter sites, ones that don't have alternate studio or transmitter sites or alternate means of getting programming from the studio to the transmitter and those that have allowed their private radio vhf and uhf licenses to expire and their equipment for such services to deteriorate.
One of the biggest stations in Vancouver has a rack of private radio walkie talkies that don't have batteries anymore because it's been deemed they're too expensive to replace.
Cell phones, as evidenced in recent disasters around the globe, are the first to go out.
The internet usually is next or has only limited access.
Wired telephones (everyone should have one of these) usually is more stable but also could be limited.
I advise companies to invest in at least a couple of satellite phones.
One can be patched into the board while the others can be used by reporters without having to rely on cells and landlines.
The problem with the corpse, the five companies that seem to own everything these days, none want to spend any money on having alternate means to keep transmitting during an emergency.
We've all seen how radio is the saviour during disasters, just read the history of CKNW or CJOC or CFRA and many other stations around the country.
A station that is there for the public during a disaster earns lasting respect and listener loyalty after it's over.
Spending a few bucks to be ready for what might come may seem foolish to the corpse but when the s**t hits the fan, the station that stays on air and goes wall to wall emergency coverage will win the day and keep those listeners for years to come.

[TVNewsman]

As with most disasters, the old, reliable ham radio will come to the rescue. That being said, though, ham radio cannot be used for commercial purposes.