Gillibrand: Quake Exposes Cellphone Problems
New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said the East Coast earthquake Tuesday is another sign that U.S. cellphone networks are still not prepared for a major catastrophe, nearly a decade after the Sept. 11 attacks.
From Washington, D.C. to New York City and elsewhere, untold numbers of people could not make calls on their cellphones Tuesday in the immediate aftermath of the quake. The mobile phone networks were so overcrowded that the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued a statement asking the public not to use their cellphones to make calls, suggesting that email or text messages be used instead.
Shortly before that request was made, a spokesman for Verizon said there was “some network congestion for some customers as a result of spikes in calling in parts of the East for a short time after the tremors.” But the spokesman added that the system “has been returning to normal quickly now that the tremors have ended.”
Gillibrand, along with fellow Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, is pushing legislation that would carve out a section of radio spectrum just for emergency responders.
To continue reading: http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2011/08/23/gillibrand-quake-exposes-cellphone-problems/
