Did The Wireless Networks Survive The Blackout?
I found out about the east coast blackout about 20 minutes after it started, and immediately tried calling family members who lives in NY. It wasn't a huge surprise that I couldn't get through to their mobile phones. However, I was a bit surprised to see an article making the rounds saying that the wireless networks stayed up during the blackout. What they seemed to mean was that the towers didn't lose power, but the networks did get overwhelmed. However, the NY Times suggests the wireless networks didn't do quite as well, saying that not only did the wireless networks get overwhelmed, plenty of backup power systems failed as well, and many people found themselves relying on landlines instead. Amusingly, I was unable to reach my parents via their landline - but that was because they've recently gone all cordless in their house, and the outage stopped those phones from ringing. They later called me back, when they saw I called on their battery powered caller ID box. Thank goodness for batteries.
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