Phone Home During Emergency? Don't Count on It
Cell service can get jammed during emergencies like the Minn. bridge collapse.
Aug. 4, 2007 — -- It happened on 9/11, during Katrina and other hurricanes, after the bridge collapse in Minneapolis, and likely will happen again the next time disaster strikes: Shaken survivors reach for their cell phones and can't get through.
"The networks aren't designed to handle everyone in Minnesota being on the cell phone at the same time," said Julie Ask, a wireless analyst for Jupiter Research.
During emergencies, "You always see people lined up at pay phones because their cell phones are out," said Nick Sbordone of New York City's Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications.
It might seem that nearly six years after 9/11 -- when making cell phone calls was notoriously difficult -- the wireless companies might have the situation in hand. But building an infrastructure certain to handle the blitz of calls home to reassure mom from a disaster zone would cost too much and jack up rates beyond what customers would be willing to pay, analysts said.
"You would be overspending," said Dave Kaut, a telecom regulatory analyst with the financial services company Stifel Nicholas. "You would go out of business."
Even spending to add towers and other equipment might not be enough to ensure service in some disaster situations. For instance, Hurricane Katrina knocked out land lines and cell phones because of flooded cell towers and lost power.
Officials said it was difficult to make a cell phone voice call immediately following the collapse of the I-35 bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. That often forced emergency responders to use radios and other communications devices.
"We were inconvenienced, but it did not affect our response," said Kristie Rollwagen, deputy director of emergency preparedness for the city of Minneapolis. "We have redundant systems built in."
Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile officials said their cell networks near the bridge initially were overloaded with people trying to make calls, but the companies rushed in extra equipment to correct the problem.
