Increased Call Volume Following Virginia Tech Tragedy Caused Wireless Outage

[Yankees368]

Wireless companies have not yet found a system to deal with outages caused by the inevitable dramatic increase in cell phone calls placed during an emergency. From Eweek:
The inability of students and others at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., to make cell phone calls during the April 16 shooting tragedy added to the chaos surrounding the events of the day, students and others have reported in media interviews.
According to the article, Verizon is the only wireless carrier admitting to call blocking during the emergency. Cingular claims to have experienced higher volumes but no service interruptions.
"We did see some call blocking," [Verizon's Spokesperson] said. "We did also see some heavy text message traffic. A lot of folks have learned that it's much easier to get a text message through at that time than to get a voice call through."
Verizon has set up a COLT (Cell on Light Truck), while Cingular has added radios to nearby cell sites. Sprint says they don't offer service in the Virginia Tech area, and instead rely on their affiliates. T-Mobile did not return calls for comment. Each company's spokesperson acknowledged that cell phone service in emergencies has been a constant problem. Cingular spokesperson added that text messaging is a good alternative.
"We had no problems with text messaging," [Cingular's Spokesperson] noted. "It's a great alternative in these situations."

http://consumerist.com/consumer/emer...age-253314.php

[bobolito]

I've had problems with text messaging as well during emergencies. I don't think it is easier than making a phone call. Under those situations, an SMS can take an hour to be delivered, whereas if you keep on hitting redial to make a call, chances are in much less than an hour your call will go through.

[UFO]

The Verizon network there also handles the load of all the students with Alltel that go to Virginia Tech and Verizon seems to be far and away the most popular provider in Blacksburg anyway so I could definitely see problems there.

I would be surprised if nTelos (Sprint affiliate) didn't have problems because of all the students that go there with Sprint/nTelos. From what I hear it's not uncommon for them to have problems on a normal Monday.

It was a terrible tragedy but I got in contact with a few friends in the area. One of which didn't know anything about it until I told him because I actually think I woke him up. But I didn't have any problems getting calls to go through in the area. Hopefully those that experienced problems were able to get through in a short amount of time.

[Yankees368]

Originally Posted by UFO

The Verizon network there also handles the load of all the students with Alltel that go to Virginia Tech and Verizon seems to be far and away the most popular provider in Blacksburg anyway so I could definitely see problems there.

I would be surprised if nTelos (Sprint affiliate) didn't have problems because of all the students that go there with Sprint/nTelos. From what I hear it's not uncommon for them to have problems on a normal Monday.

It was a terrible tragedy but I got in contact with a few friends in the area. One of which didn't know anything about it until I told him because I actually think I woke him up. But I didn't have any problems getting calls to go through in the area. Hopefully those that experienced problems were able to get through in a short amount of time.

I would guess that any area served by a sprint affiliate would have a tough time during an emergency, and then not do anything to help solve it.

[larry]

I don't think we've ever had any real emergency here in my part of So. Cal so I've never been able to test calls or SMS.

[Yankees368]

The only emergency I've been in was the blackout of '03, but the entire network pretty much failed that day.

[bobolito]

well, there was also 9/11.

[Fire14]

Originally Posted by bobolito

well, there was also 9/11.

And for us in the area's affected by the terrorist's it was extremely ruff to get calls thru with your cell between NYC/NJ and the VA/DC/MD area call volumes.

Larry, what about right after earthquakes out there or the large wild fires, I am sure some networks were dealing with issues or no?

[x7bren]

I've heard allot about this. Has it gotten under control yet?

[RadioRaiders]

Anytime theres a huge, sudden, unexpected increase in traffic in a certain area, there is bound to be blocked calls and service interruption. Most networks are designed to handle typical daily traffic, and when theres a huge sudden spike it can't handle it. I think that holds true for any operator in the world.

This article calls it a "problem", but it's simply a fact. How about daily rush hour traffic on the highway. That's a "problem" too I suppose, but we don't build 20 lane highways.

What Verizon did by bringing in mobile cells is the best answer, but that will usually take at least a day to get set up. So when the guy is running around shooting people, the network will still get jammed up (but the 1,000 news reporters there the next day should be able to place calls with less blocking)

GSM operators could implement half-rate AMR or some other type of voice compression to allow more traffic (altho at possibly a lower quality, but who cares in an emergency). Altho I'm not sure how quick they can switch over to AMR, that may also take a day, maybe less. Also, not all phones may be AMR HR enabled (altho newer ones should be)

For those not up to speed on compression:
http://www.nokia.com/NOKIA_COM_1/Ope...lers/amr_5.pdf

[hf1khal]

Originally Posted by Yankees368

The only emergency I've been in was the blackout of '03, but the entire network pretty much failed that day.

Durring that time, My ATTW phone worked every where and my guess was this was due tot he new factor of the ATTW GSM. T Mobile, Sprint and VZW users were using my phone to make their calls. I wonder what will it be like on the Cingular netwrok now that the growth is there. Oh yes, TDMA users also had the problem.

Originally Posted by bobolito

well, there was also 9/11.

On that day, the only one I was able to use was T mobile while my Sprint and ATTW TDMA were very hard to get through.

Also we need to remember, that based on government laws, providers now have to block to provide for emergency uses so the first responders will have the ability to get through in case their system fail for some reason.

[Fire14]

Originally Posted by hf1khal

Durring that time, My ATTW phone worked every where and my guess was this was due tot he new factor of the ATTW GSM. T Mobile, Sprint and VZW users were using my phone to make their calls. I wonder what will it be like on the Cingular netwrok now that the growth is there. Oh yes, TDMA users also had the problem.



On that day, the only one I was able to use was T mobile while my Sprint and ATTW TDMA were very hard to get through.

Also we need to remember, that based on government laws, providers now have to block to provide for emergency uses so the first responders will have the ability to get through in case their system fail for some reason.

I also was able to get thru on my GSM side of my GAIT phone, and Nextel worked for me, I hit more "Network Busy" issues during the blackout then no service.

As for the blocking of part of the network for emergency users, the only problem I have with this, is to be able to have this access, your phone has to be part of the Goverment agency's plan.
So even though I would for the department, I can not have my phone use this ability, and since our town does not provide us with phones I am restricted on this ability.
Luckily I have my SprintNextel line which is issued by the County & would fall into this usage (I hope.)

[Yankees368]

Originally Posted by hf1khal

Durring that time, My ATTW phone worked every where and my guess was this was due tot he new factor of the ATTW GSM. T Mobile, Sprint and VZW users were using my phone to make their calls. I wonder what will it be like on the Cingular netwrok now that the growth is there. Oh yes, TDMA users also had the problem.



On that day, the only one I was able to use was T mobile while my Sprint and ATTW TDMA were very hard to get through.

Also we need to remember, that based on government laws, providers now have to block to provide for emergency uses so the first responders will have the ability to get through in case their system fail for some reason.

During the blackout, I couln't get my Sprint phone to do much of anything. There was a signal, but I couldn't make a call or use the web.