The Inconvenient Truth About Wireless Network Resiliency

          Rarely does a week go by without a news report of a wireless network outage.  Just now, the lack of wireless access in Western North Carolina adds insults to the injuries from massive rainfall generated by Hurricane Helene, despite being 400 miles from initial landfall and diminished in classification to a tropical depression. See, e.g, https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/2024/09/29/cell-power-outage-north-carolina-helene-att-verizon-tmobile/75441408007/.

          We reluctantly expect that it will take days or weeks for electric power restoration to millions of subscribers after an earthquake, wildfire, or other natural disaster.  Ironically, the vulnerability of wireless networks exceeds that of the electric power grid, even as most wireless subscribers appear surprised and angry that their handsets do not work.  It may take weeks before complete wireless service is restored, even in the city of Asheville, N.C.  Until then, access will remain spotty, with islands of connectivity, based on which individual tower sites regain electric access.

          “Can you hear me now” has a new meaning in the storm ravaged south.  The weak link is the vulnerability of tower sites to power cuts, coupled with a quite limited span of time during which on site backup power generation can support “emergency service.”  Just as wireless subscribers cannot charge their handsets when the power grid fails, carriers equip tower sites with a limited amount of diesel fuel to power on-site electric generators.

          Outside of urban and suburban locales, cell towers typically are located on high ground and tall towers in remote places.  Wireless carriers often had to secure a dedicated wire link to the power grid.  If that link gets cut, there is no backup for access.  Even if the link itself did not fail, the interconnection with the electrical grid might offer nothing due to outages in that network.

          Every time I experience a wireless outage, I recall how my wireline connection rarely failed.  The telephone network was self-powered, originating at facilities impervious to many harms.  Much of the wireline telephone network travels underground in urban and suburban locales offering greater reliability.  Additionally, that network has built in resiliency and redundant routing.

          I do not long for a return to tethered phone service.  But I offer this reminder that with technological innovations there are tradeoffs that reduce the much touted enhanced value proposition.