Fergie's Tech Blog

Pacific Northwest Storms Cut Wireless Service, Including 9-1-1

Via OregonLive.com.

When storms washed out local phone networks up and down Oregon's coast early Monday, some folks turned to their cell phones. Wireless service, surely, could survive wind and water that blew down wires and washed out cables.

Turns out, though, that even cellular carriers rely on cables to carry their phone traffic from region to region. So the same floods that cut off more than 20,000 phone lines from the outside world turned off many cell phones, too.

Some coastal communities had phone service restored early Tuesday, but calls still weren't getting through to areas of the north coast from Astoria to at least Cannon Beach. Phone companies said they hoped to have most service restored overnight.

posted by Fergie @ 12/04/2007 07:31:00 PM