Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!shadooby!ginosko!usc!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!netsys!vector!telecom-gateway From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Earthquake - Lessons Learned Message-ID: Date: 22 Oct 89 00:37:57 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Organization: Green Hills and Cows Lines: 47 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 467, message 5 of 5 In article , myerston@cts.sri.com writes: > The following is my opinion of the earthquake aftermath based on > talking to many fellow Telecom folks in the area (SL-1 Users, TCA and > many vendors): > [...] > o Cellular overloaded worse than land lines. Not GTE Mobilnet. In fact, I found my handheld to be much more useful than any of the landline telephones that were at the various sites. It *never* failed to complete a call at anytime after the event. In fact, some of my initial info obtained before I returned to the area was from calling people with cellular phones. I understand that Cellular One (PacTel Mobile) had some major problems and was asking people through the media to avoid using their cellular phone except for emergencies. > o Carriers who controlled traffic took (in my opinion) a bum rap. The > resellers mentioned in previous messages were able to complete calls > only because the underlying carrier maintained some measure of Network > Discipline. Unfortunately, it's the results that count. If you can't make calls on one carrier and you can on another, all of the reasons, justifications, self-congratulations, reputations, and press relations don't count for one damn. The carrier that completes my calls when another won't gets my thanks and deserves my patronage. > o Radio, I think, did great. Not to much panic or exageration. > Amazingly enough from the time I got home about two hours after the > earthquake I was able to watch local TV coverage using an outside > antenna. Shortly before I returned to the area, I watched KABC-TV out of LA. They were in "continuous coverage" mode and were switching to sister-station KGO-TV for periods of time. The San Francisco anchor people were professional, calm, informative and even under adverse conditions and a lack of commercial power, were able to produce an on-the-fly report with continuity and smoothness. When they would cut back to the Ken and Barbie anchors in LA, they talked in over-dramatic tones, and were almost a parody of themselves. As a southland resident later said, "You would have thought the quake was in LA." John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !