Major cellphone outage reported in New York

Reuters ^ | 8/10/06 | Reuters

[Mount Athos]

Does anyone know when the terrorists had planned to board those planes in the UK? Would it be about now?

[Diddle E. Squat]

What city or state?

[shortstop]

**Jets leaving from two major aorports for one. Also, Shea Stadium. Are the Mets in town?**

The Mets are playing the Padres at Shea as we speak.

[maggief]

More scary shiite!

[Brilliant]

The electric lines were down a few days ago. The airports closed, the cell phones off line...

Living in NY doesn't seem to be all it's cracked up to be.

[EQAndyBuzz]

Kennedy and Laguardia.

[Moonman62]

maybe done intenionally to stop the bad guys from using cell phones to detonate something?

That's what I'm thinking.

[divine_moment_of_facts]

"Since cellphones are triggering devices for bombs it would make sense to shut down service in the vicinity of an airport if there was a suspected threat."

That was my first thought, too.

[deport]

It maybe nothing more than a disruption of a major feeder/connector somewhere along their system. Sprint had one that took out a huge area like MS, LA, TX and others when a contractor cut a main cable connector while digging on a job in Greenville, MS. So those things do happen

[EternalHope]

Hard to believe this is just a coincidence.

[MediaMole]

One or two carriers, it's a technical problem and a coincidence.

All the carriers, it's homeland security.

[hoosiermama]

There is just TOO much common sense on this thread.....Just hope the terrorist have not taken down communication to use for their advantage. /tinfoil

[freeperfromnj]

Thx for the heads up

[Froufrou]

I know. I hope you're right, that it was to deter any attacks and not to assist in them...depends on who did the shutdown.

[presidio9]

I will be working in Washington DC (actually out in the suburbs) for two weeks as of Tuesday, so assuming NYC is still target A, I should be somewhat safer. Right now I am working at top of the tallest building in lower Manhattan, and I do feel kind of exposed from time to time.

The subways scare me more than the building though.

[fivecatsandadog]

How do those trac phones work? (the ones the terrorists bought)?

[Bogtrotter52]

Hmmmm......less people driving and yakking at the same time. Less people in stores, restaurants, etc yakking to the annoyance of others. What's the downside?

[ohioWfan]

A little tinfoil is probably in order today, hoosier......

[JellyJam]

Not necessarily. YOu can and should shut down cell towers if you think terrorists are afoot. Cell phones can be used to keep in touch and to set off bombs.

Can cell phones be used to trigger an N-bomb? Just curious.

[shhrubbery!]

The Mets are playing now, hmmmm. I always hated being at Shea, directly under flight paths in and out of La Guardia (which is a stone's throw from Shea). The noise alone was bad enough -- now we have to worry about Shea's being a big fat target.

Wonder if this is a deliberate shut down of cell phone service -- by the phone company itself? So as to prevent their possible use as detonators?

OTOH, is it possible that unavailability of service doesn't necessarily impede use of a cellphone as a detonator?