Re: Can cell phones and SPS share the same frequency?

In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Joann Evans wrote:
> 
>    There have been places (espically after  major power disruption in
> Chicago, some years back) when cellphone sales went up, as people
> assumed they'd still have service in the next such power failure. The
> blackout of last August showed them, however, that even if their phone
> is fully charged, if they're not in range of a cell tower whose
> transcievers and other electronics have power (the landline system has
> its own backup power), they're still out of luck. Their phones have
> nothing to talk to.

And, of course - especially in urban areas - cells can swamp. A sudden
surge of traffic, a lot of people in a restricted area all deciding they
need to use a cellphone at once, and bang a lot of them are looking at a
silent network.

(This can be spotted reasonably easily, in Civilised Parts, by trying to
call out at about 00.10 on January 1st from your nearest urban
centre...)

One of the things which will cause this, of course, is something like a
major blackout...

(Do the US providers have something like the limited preference-system
we have here? A list of numbers, generally belonging to technical staff,
which are bounced to the top of the list in an overlogged cell...)

>   (I'm reminded of a scene in the movie 'Six Days, Seven Nights.' Only a
> satphone would've helped Anne Hecht...) 

Heh. One of the things I can't help but be amused by is encountering
novels, generally sf from the 1970s, where the entire plot manages to be
invalidated by no-one predicting any kind of mobile phone. C'est la vie,
I suppose...

-- 
-Andrew Gray
 [EMAIL PROTECTED]