It is not just the cell phone service. It applies to any service that
assumes multiple resource consumers accessing the same resource, but not
all at once. Most of those are NOT designed for the capacity that would
provide ALL end users simultaneously. That would be too expensive and
wasteful. There is always a "designed" capacity that could be based on the
historic data, assumptions, models, etc.
That applies to: landline phones, ISPs, water, electricity, drainage,
sewage, fire/police department, roadway and public transport capacity ...
That's why you occasionally have electric power blackouts, internet
hiccups/slowdowns in the evenings, flash floods, traffic congestions,
fully packed buses and subway trains, etc.
The cell phone systems have an additional limitation from the frequency
spectrum allotted by the govermental agencies (FCC in the US). You have to
allow a certain frequency range for each channel (conversation) to avoid
interference between adjacent channels. And the minimum width of that is
significantly affected by the capabilities of the (notch) filters in the
cell tower switches.
So, increasing the capacity for simultaneous cell phone connections
requires increased density of cell towers, with all obvious conseqencies
and costs.
An aside: superconductor-based filters in provide much higher density of
channels available for a given frequency range, and that's one of the
motivations for searching for superconductors that can work at higher
(ideally room) temperature. You might not know, but cell towers with
superconducting electronics have been deployed since late 90s.
BTW, the limited capacity of the electric cables is the limiting factor
for the electric power available for large metropolitan centers (such as
NYC). And that also motivates the same research of superconductors.
Igor
Gonz Fri, 07 Oct 2016 08:46:12 -0700 wrote:
Exactly Bob. Cell phone service has a certain load rate expectation.
These load rates are exceeded in many situations. It happened during
9/11, the Boston Marathon bombing, some storms in the south east, etc.
I remember that the batteries in the local trunk boxes were really
tall, the reason being that over time lead-acid batteries slough off
some of the lead from the plates, eventually shorting the plates and
rendering the battery useless. By making them tall, the batteries had
an exceptional lifespan. I always wanted to put one of those in my
car! hehe
On Fri, Oct 7, 2016 at 10:07 AM, Bob Sullivan <rf.sulli...@gmail.com>
wrote:
I miss the days when Ma Bell had batteries in every office to keep the
phones working.
15 years ago the exchange the office was on had a fire and went out of
service.
The majority cell phone provider was overloaded and useless, no
connectvity.
Something to think about.
On Fri, Oct 7, 2016 at 7:59 AM, Paul Stenquist <pnstenqu...@mac.com>
wrote:
Yep. Your public utility probably has an app for that. My electricity
provider, DTE Energy, posts updates as work progresses. The app allows
reporting of an outage, bill paying and more. Another app offered by
the
utility monitors electricity usage in real time via the smart meter and
provides billing info as well. The neatest part of it all: a tool that
enables measurement of an appliances kilowatt demand by holding an
iPhone
next to the power cord.
Paul via phone
On Oct 7, 2016, at 7:54 AM, Matthew Hunt <m...@pobox.com> wrote:
On Thu, Oct 6, 2016 at 9:39 PM, John <sesso...@earthlink.net> wrote:
One of the things they suggested was that if it DOES go off, I should
consult their web site to find out the extent of the outage. I'll
make
sure to check, JUST AS SOON AS THE POWER COMES BACK ON!
Smartphones, dude.
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