|
|
|||||
ETel: VoIP in an EmergencyThe day before Katrina made landfall, cell towers went down and with them went the area's cellular phone service. Landlines went down shortly before Katrina hit. Satellite phones worked until their batteries ran out and could not be recharged. City officials went two days without outside communication until they realized the hotel that was their improvised command center had a functioning Internet connection. They signed up for Vonage service, and soon had eight phone lines running off the one Internet connection. Their first incoming call was from President Bush during his flyover. (from WSJ via this thought-provoking editorial, thanks to Jim for the pointer)
|
|||||
© 2012, O'Reilly Media, Inc. (707) 827-7019(800) 889-8969 All trademarks and registered trademarks appearing on oreilly.com are the property of their respective owners. |
|||||
Comments: 1
Gavin Bell [21 September 2005 06:17 AM]
On the 7th July in London there was a similar story, but for different reasons. The mobile phone system was overloaded and some networks failed-over to give priority to emergency calls.
The wifi internet cafes were fine, so when caught on the Strand I was able to see my friends on IM and email / Skype-out to others. IM status tags reading "I'm ok", were reassuring, as were blog posts mentioning friends and others. In an emergency tcp/ip and cabled networks work, as designed.