Vanity: Phone Service In Oklahoma Cut BEFORE Storms.

Me

[ConservativeMan55]

So an interesting little note here.

But hours before the storms rolled into Oklahoma, most cell phone service across the state, and specifically in Northeast Oklahoma was cut.

No one could make any calls. Texting worked but no calls.

Why would this happen BEFORE the storms?

I know the government has the ability to turn the service off I am sure.

Was this some sort of test to see if they could turn it off.. and during an emergency it was convenient?? So not as many people notice/blamed it on the storms.

[jrd]

The phone company only puts in a few circuits to every town or switching office, once they are in use you get the all circuits busy signal ...think of it as a party line first come first serve. during a disaster the network service center will at time try and re route calls another way. if the service was down before the storm it sounds more like a switching office in the area might have booted ( they are very large computer mainframes, they are duplicated but at time have a problem and have to reset them selves...

[Vermont Lt]

Ha ha...it’s the first time I’ve heard anyone say anything good about T Mobile!

[gwjack]

Thanks for writing CM.

My line quality was not the best, but no dropped calls.

I’m sure more will be revealed about the phone issues. I hope it was a mechanical issue and not one of government meddling. If it was government, and carriers went along, there would be huge liability for them.

[Mr. Lucky]

Jeez, no kidding.

Get a grip people.

[OKSooner]

The reason phone service was disrupted was because everyone and their dog was trying to make a call at the same time. :)

Phone systems have a peak capacity of (hangonasecondwhileIpullanumberoutofsomwhere) about thirty percent. At a point service becomes degraded; this is why voice stops and text keeps working. At a point it all stops.

[A_Tradition_Continues]

Nope...didn’t experience any problems with service before and minimal problems afterwards. I was on the phone with a friend traveling via car from Shawnee to Moore during the storm.

[plain talk]

They wouldn’t “cut” phone service ahead of some storm. There are GETS and WPS which are emergency services they can engage after a mass event that provides priority access to/for certain government and emergency services. It might be possible government agencies (in monitoring and preparing for storm) were taking so much capacity it left little for ordinary calling. That seems unlikely. It’s more likely the storm as it moved east destroyed something that affected regional communications. Just guessing.

[CGASMIA68]

People misunderstand the technology behind cell service.
Everyone cant talk at one time.Providers bet on a %age only going “off hook” at one time.At times like OK disaster that's what happened.The number of people trying to contact others before the storm maxed out the T1’s carrying the calls.
Although POTS aerial service in this area probably took a hit, under ground probably did OK.

Keep that land line for emergencies

[CGASMIA68]

LOL, I dont think so,you may want to look into SW

[moose07]

“No one could make any calls. Texting worked but no calls. “

Bingo! Text only uses a tiny amount of bandwidth.
Communication is still possible without overloading the servers/exchange.
Which is what causes problems when everybody hit ‘Dial’ at the same time.

[KarlInOhio]

Did they have some type of "reverse 911" system which calls out to every phone? They might have reserved the system for that. I've only ever gotten one call on that system on my landline for a kidnapping/missing child so that wasn't nearly as time sensitive as a tornado.

[Renegade]

why bother to get licensed?Just another way for the govt. to get revenue and track you .

[Longbow1969]

is everything a government conspiracy?

For some people, yes. It would be better if those folks would hang out with the Alex Jones crowd on InfoWars though. The silly conspiracy theories posted on serious sites like FR and others get tiresome.

[Marie]

Within minutes of the Ft Hood shooting, the lines were overloaded. Texts had a better chance of getting out, but I couldn’t get a hold of anyone in the area via cell. I managed to locate my kids via text.

But I could call out (got my mom) on my landline.

It’s amazing how fast these systems hit their limit.

I’m sure that, in the hours leading up to the storms, people saw them coming and were reaching out to family and friends. It’s not like a bomb went off. The Weather Channel was watching this line of storms march in for hours.

[righttackle44]

Please document your reasons for saying the phones went off before the storms. I have been watching TV coverage, and I don't here anyone from Oklahoma saying this.

As well, they are still looking for children. I think paranoia about phone coverage is the very last priority in this horrible time.

[righttackle44]

Yeah, this is pretty funny. Searchers are finding dead children, and so you choose phone humor. You’re not the kind of Conservative I want to pay ANY attention to.

[stormer]

Here, this may help...

[B.O. Plenty]

I will go with overloaded by relatives and friends of people in Ok calling to see if everybody is allright.

Everything cannot be a conspiracy, even with this bunch....they are not smart enough.

It takes brains to concoct a really effective conspiracy. All Zer0 slugs IQ's, added up wouldn't make it to 80.

There was no collusion here...just normal human concern....IMO.

[backwoods-engineer]

That is the reason I am going back to landline.

(head in hands)

Please, please talk to somebody who understands the tech behind this before saying this to anyone else. It makes you sound ignorant.

Today's "landlines" use the exact same infrastructure as cell phones do; fiber optics. The box in your neighborhood that translates "phone lines" (which really don't exist any more beyond the neighborhood level) into fiber optic is just as vulnerable as the cell infrastructure. More, actually, because the cell phone towers generally have backup batteries.

If you want true redundant communications, please study up and get your ham radio license, and join a local ham radio club so they can show you what to buy.

[Chickensoup]

I am on a small providers system and most of the people I talk to are on that system and that is who I will want to talk to.