Quake Shows Need for Emergency Network, Senator’s Aide Says
East Coast Earthquake Causes "Cell Phone Congestion"
A woman checks her phone as people gather on Freedom Plaza after an earthquake struck Washington, DC. The 5.8-magnitude earthquake that rattled the East Coast was followed by “reports of cell phone congestion,” Federal Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Rachel Racusen said. Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
A woman checks her phone as people gather on Freedom Plaza after an earthquake struck Washington, DC. The 5.8-magnitude earthquake that rattled the East Coast was followed by “reports of cell phone congestion,” Federal Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Rachel Racusen said. Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
Difficulties making cell-phone calls after yesterday’s earthquake in Virginia reinforce the need to pass legislation creating a nationwide emergency radio network, an aide to Senator Jay Rockefeller said.
Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, is sponsoring a bill that would auction airwaves voluntarily surrendered by television stations and use the proceeds to help pay for a national communications network for emergency responders.
The “earthquake is yet one more wake-up call that first responders need a unified, dedicated communications system that is interoperable and will work in times of emergency, like today when cell phone coverage is over-utilized and over-whelmed,” Vincent Morris, a spokesman for Rockefeller, said in an e-mail.
The 5.8-magnitude earthquake that rattled the U.S. East Coast yesterday was followed by “reports of cell phone congestion,” Federal Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Rachel Racusen said in an e-mail. The agency asked people to use e-mail or text messages to communicate after the quake “so that emergency officials can continue to receive and respond to urgent calls,” she said.
The Federal Communications Commission is concerned by incidents yesterday in which wireless calls to 911 numbers were hindered by clogged mobile-phone networks, Jamie Barnett, chief of the agency’s public safety and homeland security bureau, said in an e-mail.
Updated 911 Services
“These are the moments when mobile phone service is needed most -- and disruptions put lives at risk,” Barnett said. “We are in contact with wireless carriers and public safety call centers in affected areas to determine the cause of reported outages in an immediate effort to identify and address the problems.”
Barnett said the quake illustrated the need for updated 911 services that allow for text, photo and video messaging. The FCC and FEMA are working with wireless carriers, including Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc. (T), on an emergency-alert system that would steer government messages around network congestion to mobile- phone users.
Verizon, AT&T and Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) experienced a surge in phone calls after the earthquake, but the companies reported no damage to their networks.
“Wireless networks were built to survive many disasters, such as yesterday’s earthquake,” Amy Storey, a spokeswoman for the CTIA wireless industry trade group in Washington, said in an e-mail. “The congestion was caused by the wireless networks processing substantial spikes in volume.”
10th Anniversary
The emergency network envisioned in Rockefeller’s bill, S.911, is designed to avert the communications breakdowns that plagued emergency workers during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Rockefeller has urged colleagues to pass the legislation by the 10th anniversary of the attacks in New York and Washington.
“When Congress returns in September, it’s critical they immediately take up consideration of Sen. Rockefeller’s spectrum bill because nothing’s more important than the public’s safety,” Morris said.
The bill also would use proceeds from airwave auctions to compensate TV station owners and apply an estimated $6.5 billion toward deficit reduction.
The legislation, which is co-sponsored by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, passed the Senate Commerce Committee in a 21-4 vote on June 8. Two draft bills on public safety networks are circulating in the House of Representatives, and have not been formally introduced.
Local Broadcasting
“Policymakers debating spectrum policy ought to take note that the one reliable communications service during today’s earthquake was the original wireless technology -- free and local broadcasting,” Dennis Wharton, spokesman for the National Association of Broadcasters, said in a statement.
The NAB, which represents TV station owners, has called for an inventory of spectrum use before auctions begin. Members of the Washington-based group include CBS Corp. (CBS), Comcast Corp. (CMCSA)’s NBC, the Walt Disney Co. (DIS)’s ABC and News Corp. (NWSA)’s Fox.
To contact the reporter on this story: Eric Engleman in Washington at eengleman1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Allan Holmes at aholmes25@bloomberg.net
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