[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
But then, people don't really care about this, as cell is in the
exact same boat and huge numbers of people rely on just their cell
phone and no longer have a fixed line (in Europe at least).
I have read accounts that suggest that cellphone subscribers
from New Orleans only have one way service. In other words,
if you left New Orleans with your cellphone then you can
make outgoing calls but no-one can call you. I don't know
how widespread this is, but knowing that there has to
be an SS7 switch in New Orleans directing those incoming
calls to your new location, I can imaging that loss of
such a switch would create problems.
It is sometimes the case in disasters that people from inside can call
out but that people from outside can't call in because the circuits into
the disaster area become overloaded. This would hold true especially in
the case where many people in the disaster area have no access to
working phones, so those with working phones can easily get a free
outbound circuit - meanwhile frantic friends and family clog up the
incoming circuits trying to reach phones that are out of service or
people who simply aren't near the phone and who can't answer but those
calls still tie up circuits each time they are attempted.
I've had several reports that cell phone users who can't make *or*
receive calls are successfully sending *and* receiving SMS. It could be
that the problem is one of not enough cell channels and working phone
circuits for all the phone calls people want to make, but that the SMS
channel is not overloaded and thus SMS traffic can zip on thru (when the
cell has power and can reach a working cell tower).
jc
