Title: Blackout gives cell phones a black eye - CNET
Headings: Blackout gives cell phones a black eye
Blackout gives cell phones a black eye
Content: The carriers blamed the ongoing outages on their cellular transmitter stations, which handle cell phone call traffic. "We need electricity to power our cell sites, but when you don't have that, it's out of our control," Nextel Communications spokesman Chris Grandis said. The transmitter stations are powered by electricity, and most have battery backups that provide three to six hours of additional operation. But when the blackout stretched beyond six hours, the stations that were still working went dead. This is the second time a significant number of American cell phone subscribers had difficulty making calls during a time of crisis. The first was after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when damage to the cell phone antennas on the World Trade Center towers and heavy traffic brought wireless dialing to a standstill. Thursday's blackout caused a similar surge in cell phone calls, creating about four times the usual traffic in the area, according to Verizon Wireless. IDC analyst Keith Waryas believes America's 146 million wireless subscribers will continue to have problems getting calls through during emergency times, although he believes the 2003 blackout will force carriers to better arm their networks against electricity failures. "These kinds of lessons are pointing to one thing: We expect our cell phones to always be on," he said. "