Verizon Drops 10,000 911 Calls During Blizzard

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Verizon Drops 10,000 911 Calls During Blizzard

Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday February 22, 2011 @05:41AM from the can-you-hear-me-n dept.

mschaffer noted a Bloomberg piece saying "US regulators said Verizon Communications Inc.'s networks may have dropped a 'truly alarming' number of wireless emergency calls during a snow storm last month, and asked the carrier to investigate." The article says 10,000 calls failed to connect during one blizzard. Can't wait to see what all those AT&T migrators think.

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Obligatory by inKubus · 2011-02-22 05:42 · Score: 5, Funny

911, Can you hear me now?

--
Cool! Amazing Toys.
1. Re:Obligatory by KshGoddess · 2011-02-22 08:08 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  911 is a tricksy beast, and when you combine RF issues, like rain fade (snow fade - which is less, but still noticeable) and location services (which tell the carrier WHICH 911 center to route the call to) ... 10k dropped 911 calls out of ... how many total placed calls? How was this data collected? Was there a record of 10,000 dropped calls that actually connected to 911? Is this from a log from their switches covering that area? How did their competitors fare? So much is so vague about this article, that it makes my head spin.
  
  --
  It's a little wrong to say a tomato is a vegetable. It's a lot wrong to say it's a suspension bridge.
Que the "Can you hear me now" jokes by raitchison · 2011-02-22 05:43 · Score: 5, Interesting

Seriously, 10,000 911 calls is a huge number, even if 911 is being abused there were no doubt a lot of calls from people trapped in their homes (for people who have ditched their landlines) or cars. Imagine an elderly person in their home when the heat goes out, in those cold temperatures that can become life threatening very quickly.
Things like this are one of the main reasons we pay ~$25/mo for a land line despite having 5 active cell phones in the house on 2 separate networks (not to mention a few inactive ones that can still call 911) I know that if the excrement hits the air circulator that I will have more options to reach people than finicky mobile networks.
1. Re:Que the "Can you hear me now" jokes by h4rr4r · 2011-02-22 05:49 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  I lived for two weeks in the buffalo winter without heat when i first moved in. With some blankets and a sleeping bag you can do fine.
2. Re:Que the "Can you hear me now" jokes by raitchison · 2011-02-22 05:53 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  You might or I might be fine, but I was talking specifically about elderly people without a lot of stamina, especially problematic for a widow who's never had to worry about how to deal with the cold in her entire lifetime.
  In general, many people have become soft thanks to modern life.
3. Re:Que the "Can you hear me now" jokes by Tr3vin · 2011-02-22 06:06 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Frailer bodies have more difficulty in producing and maintaining the required body heat. It is easier for a younger healthier person to keep their core temp up. Blankets only go so far, and an older person may not be able to keep warm enough.
  There is also the awareness to get some extra blankets out. They may go to bed feeling fine, but then have hypothermia set in over night. At that point, you start to shut down and you aren't thinking too well. More than likely, they would remain where they are instead of getting up to find more warmth.
4. Re:Que the "Can you hear me now" jokes by Anonymous Coward · 2011-02-22 06:06 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  What good is 911 in an emergency? No...I'm totally, utterly serious. For certain definitions of emergency...
  In the event, *YOU* have an emergency that isn't impacting everyone else...okay, you're paying $25/month for what amounts to insurance that you have a land line to dial in if the cell network fails. Fine. Valid case.
  In the event there is a local/county/state/national emergency--and you dial 911. Congrats, you're emergency caller number ... let's say 35 in a list of a thousand. The cops will be with you right after they've dealt with the other 34 people coming first. Assuming nobody else in that list is worse prepared than you are and gets triaged up. You're running out of insulin? Sorry, you won't be in a coma for 8 hours--there's elderly living alone and freezing now.
  Maybe...if you or someone near you had a heart attack...during a catastrophic blizzard. And emergency services triaged you to the top. Maybe...maybe then you'd have a use case. I'm not convinced.
  Of course, all this assumes that local emergency services doesn't pull a Katrina and
  1) flee first
  2) show up and confiscate your supplies
  3) outright rob you and/or shoot you in the back if you resist.
  That $25 a month in your landline would probably be better spent on ammunition, candles, blankets, a fire extinguisher, or even a well trained dog.
  Just sayin...
  I get you're hedging, but I don't think it's a very effective ROI of that $300/year.
5. Re:Que the "Can you hear me now" jokes by h4rr4r · 2011-02-22 06:09 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Try it.
  Lines without service in the USA by law have tone and will dial 911 or let you order service. If you dial any other number it tells you that you do not have service and asks if you would like to get it.
  The wikipedia article covers it:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9-1-1
  The FCC rule can be found
  http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/Reports/FCC-State_Link/IAD/pntris99.pdf
6. Re:Que the "Can you hear me now" jokes by sabt-pestnu · 2011-02-22 06:11 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  > If you don't have...
  Some other things whose lack might invoke your "miserable death":
  A 2 week supply of water. You don't think public water supplies are going to remain stable, do you? And if you're talking about "death by cold", then you're also talking "pipes freeze". And since you're talking about using sleeping bags and blankets to keep yourself warm, that same water supply needs to be in meltable chunks. You'll be a sad panda when you find your 5 gallon buckets are 5 gallon blocks of ice. ... and sadder when the heat comes back on and you find they split...
  Emergency sanitation. Frozen pipes. Two weeks. you do the math. And if you're talking "can't open the door because of the snow", don't tell me "just do it outside in the snow".
  Your own home. You honestly think you can store all of that in a studio apartment? If you do, where are you going to put the sleeping bag down at?
  I'll point out as well that the "old widow", being "old" may well not be able to generate enough heat on her own to keep from freezing, even with the best of insulation. It takes a lot of calories to do that kind of thing, and you have to be able to USE those calories, which an old person may well not be acclimatized to.
7. Re:Que the "Can you hear me now" jokes by ifrag · 2011-02-22 06:22 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Why is 2 weeks the magic number?
  2 weeks is of course the length of time a zombie can last without eating brains. Assuming that the zombies did not get a chance to eat any of your neighbors you can now go exploring for food. The remaining difficulty is with migratory zombies, so there is still some chance of "miserable death" occuring.
  
  --
  Fear is the mind killer.
8. Re:Que the "Can you hear me now" jokes by WrongSizeGlass · 2011-02-22 06:27 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  I've actually had to try to survive a couple of nights in New Orleans in dead of summer with NO air conditioning, man, that was brutal.
  You should have tried some blankets. I've recently read that they work wonders.
9. Re:Que the "Can you hear me now" jokes by treeves · 2011-02-22 08:29 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  "... I'd sleep with no shirt on with blankets around my waist and be perfectly warm.
  My grandma did it till the day she died at 90."
  Thanks, but I don't want to try to picture that.
  
  --
  ...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
Re:/. News Network by ByOhTek · 2011-02-22 05:49 · Score: 4, Funny

nuclear detonation facilitated morse code?
I'm sure that would visible at a huge distance, regardless of weather. Sure it'd be a bit harmful to the sender, but nothing is perfect, eh?

--
Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
Give us more facts... by buzzsawddog · 2011-02-22 05:52 · Score: 4, Insightful

Not all dropped calls are created equally... Some areas are just not designed to get cell coverage. It almost makes me wonder if some one is needing to use 911 if they are often in that area. Also what is the ratio of dropped calls to calls made? 10,000 out of 10,000 would be an alarming rate but what about 10,000 out of 1,000,000. How many dropped calls are customer induced? This article tells us nothing...
AT&T Migrators thoughts irrelevant. by aburnstine · 2011-02-22 05:59 · Score: 5, Informative

It wasn't Verizon Wireless that dropped the calls, it was Verizon Landline that lost 14 CAMA trunks used by ALL wireless carriers. Also, the calls weren't dropped, they got busy signals. Bad, but different and comparing Verizon Wireless to AT&T Wireless are irrelevant to this story.
Disconnect v Drop by UninformedCoward · 2011-02-22 06:06 · Score: 3, Insightful

TFA explains first that 10000 calls were dropped but the investigation showed that it was 10000 calls failing to connect. Isn't this two completely different situations? The first being the customer connecting then being disconnected and the second never actually connecting. I could see someone failing to connect at all then attempt to dial multiple times in quick succession...
Re:/. News Network by Amouth · 2011-02-22 06:11 · Score: 5, Funny

always keep a piece of fiber in your pocket, that way if you get lost or stranded you can just bury it. then when the backhoe comes to dig it up ask the driver for directions/help.

--
'...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
Here's the FCC letter to Verizon by mschaffer · 2011-02-22 06:58 · Score: 5, Informative

http://www.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2011/db0218/DA-11-328A1.pdf
Kathleen M. Grub
Senior Vice President
Public Affairs, Policy & Communications
Verizon Communications
1300 I St. NW, Room 400W
Washington, DC USA 20005
Re: Failed 9-1-1 Calls During January 26, 2011 Snowstorm
Dear Ms. Grub,
The FCC has received reports that during the snowstorm that hit the Washington D.C. region on January 26, 2011, approximately 8,300 wireless
9-1-1 calls to the Montgomery County Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), routed over the Verizon network, were not connected, and an additional 1,700
wireless calls to the Prince George's County PSAP were not connected. I know that you will agree that any 9-1-1 call which is not connected can have serious
consequences, but the large number of missed 9-1-1 calls on January 26 is truly alarming. I therefore request that Verizon provide an explanation of the causes
of this and similar failures, provide Verizon's assessment of the possibility of occurrence in other locations and describe what actions Verizon is taking to
prevent recurrence of these problems.
Here is a synopsis of what we understand so far. Through our initial discussions with various parties, including representatives of Verizon, we have
learned that the Montgomery County PSAP has fourteen trunks that handle wireless calls, seven each from the Rockville and Hyattsville Selective Routers.
The trunks from these Selective Routers to the PSAPs are maintained by Verizon (not Verizon Wireless), and there are separate trunks for wireline, wireless and
VoIP calls. At approximately 5:15 p.m. on January 26, Verizon's system automatically took one of the wireless 9-1-1 trunks out of service. It is our
understanding that this was not an overload. We understand that it is normal in large-scale emergencies for the call volume to exceed the trunk capacity, in
which case calls will be blocked until another trunk opens up. In this instance, however, the Verizon system took each of the fourteen trunks handling wireless
calls out of service sequentially so that they could not receive any more calls. By 8:45 p.m., the problem had cascaded to the other thirteen 9-1-1 trunks handling
wireless calls, so that all of the trunks handling wireless 9-1-1 traffic in Montgomery County were taken out of service by the system.
These trunks have working alarms, but Verizon did not notify the PSAPs of the failure after the alarms went off. The Montgomery County PSAP
recognized the problem just prior to 11:00 p.m. and notified Verizon. By 11:15 p.m., Verizon had placed all the trunks back into service.
Similarly, eight of the ten trunks that serve wireless calls for the Prince George's County PSAP were taken out of service automatically by Verizon on
January 26 by approximately 8:30 p.m. A ninth trunk was taken out shortly thereafter. Four were restored by 10:30 p.m.; all trunks were finally restored by
approximately 11:00 p.m.
It is not clear what caused these individual trunks to be taken out of service. Your experts have postulated that the increased call volume resulting
from the snowstorm created a timing problem on the trunks which caused them to be automatically taken out of service. However, the Private Branch Exchange
(PBX) in the Montgomery County PSAP is a relatively new CS1000E, which has the speed and capacity to handle the number of calls that were being routed.
The Prince George's County PSAP's PBX is older, but since the PBX has fewer trunks connected to it, the PBX should be able handle the call volume. The slow
response of the PBX's does not appear to be the cause of the failures.
I would note that the events of January 26 are not unique and that other similar 9-1-1 outages have occurred recently in the region. On December 17th,
2010, the Prince George's County PSAP and on July 25, 2010, the Montgomery County PSAP exper