phone system down ?


  #1  
Old 05-15-18, 09:11 AM
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phone system down ?

For several hours this morning our house phone, both of our cellphones and my wife's brother's phone didn't work. No matter who you dialed you got a recording stating all circuits were busy. That's with 4 different phone companies but in the same region. Anyone hear anything about any phone issues this morning?
 
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Old 05-15-18, 09:23 AM
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There was a time when I would have thought that the cell network and land lines were separate. Everything now is so computerized and interconnected it's possible they could go over the same terrestrial microwave network or satellites.
 
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Old 05-15-18, 09:28 AM
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That was the thing that got me since there are 4 different carriers involved. I could see both cellphone or both landlines having issues but I'd have never thought something could affect them both at the same time. ..... oh, our phones are working ok now.
 
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Old 05-16-18, 05:46 AM
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Yes as PD mentions the utilities of all sorts share the same hardware and resources. So if a cell tower gets knocked out, most likely all services will be affected regardless of carrier.

On a similar note, my neighborhood has all underground utilities so in theory we should be immune to most outages. In theory! But if the main feeder station or above ground pole that connects to our system gets hit by lightening or a car hits it or it floods we loose our power.

post Hi-jack warning...

So this brings up the problem of our power grid system in this country. It's all inter connected and co-dependent on each other. If one section goes out many others or all my be affected. I have an idea that could reduce this situation in many urban and sub-urban areas. What I would like to see is an independent (but inter connected to the grid) power source, be it wind, water, generator, solar, battery or whatever fits the situation that will service perhaps 4 to 5 homes adjacent to each other. Similar to how cable or land line phones are distributed among neighboring houses.

Some people say it would look ridiculous to have a 25 foot wind mill every few house. not any worse than the big green power boxes sitting on front lawns randomly among the neighborhood. Supposing a natural gas generator is installed at the intersection of four house in a typical neighborhood street. It would service two house next to each other and the two behind each other.

Just a thought.
 
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Old 05-16-18, 09:10 AM
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Many land-lines still rely on wires on poles, while they may be fiber optic instead of copper, a falling tree ripping them down still severs service. Same applies to data.



Once that happens, EVERYONE uses their cell phone, and cellphone modems to make up the slack, choking bandwidth down to nothing.



Also, cell phone provides co-located their antennas on the same cell phone tower,

so if a tree falls and cuts power to the tower, a generator is supposed to kick in, but if you don't have access to the site to refill the generator gas tank after a few hours, the cell tower will go dead, and then ALL of that cellphone traffic is shunted to neighboring cell phone "cells".



Basically the phone equivilent of a highway where a lane closure causes a backup.
 
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Old 05-16-18, 10:08 AM
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What got me is all 4 phones [2 cell,2 landline] with 4 different providers all gave the same message - all circuits are busy, try again later
 
  #7  
Old 05-16-18, 01:14 PM
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Well, after they GET to the cell phone tower, your cell calls are basically landline calls...
 
 

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