RSSCourt puts off decision on backup power for cellular towers
By Ed Oswald | Published July 9, 2008, 5:51 PM
A federal appeals court decided to put off a ruling on a challenge by the wireless industry of rules that would ensure cell towers stay on in the event of a power loss.
In May 2007, the Federal Communications Commission proposed regulations that would mandate all cellular transmission towers have at least eight hours of emergency power. The decision followed a study of cellular service following the Katrina disaster.
That panel found that most of the cell phone towers within the direct path of that storm went offline as their primary sources of power were cut. In turn, this caused communications problems for first responders in the wake of the storm.
Wireless carriers have taken issue with the new provisions, and asked the US Court of Appeals for the DC circuit to overturn the provisions. The court declined Tuesday, saying it wanted to wait for approval from the Office of Management and Budget, which is required to sign off on any regulations or rulings that require the collection and submission of information from the public.
The new provisions stem from an October revision which allowed carriers to exempt certain towers if they could prove the installation would be too expensive or difficult. While carriers were given six months, opponents argued to the court it would still would amount to massive amounts of paperwork.
Carriers also said the amount of generators and battery packs needed overall would make the project costly to implement.
Since the law is not approved yet, the court could not rule, it said. Even so, its application had already been stayed in May pending the court arguments of both sides, and would remain so regardless of the OMB's decision.
While the CTIA wireless industry association -- one of the complainants in the case -- said it was pleased with the decision, the FCC would not comment on the court's decision. Analysts believe that the wireless industry will ultimately prevail in the matter.
I really never understand these all-or-nothing choices. Have they forgotten graceful degradation? How about 50% tower coverage for local disasters (normal power outages) and 10% during "declared emergency" conditions. All sites could have generator capable designs for ad hoc upgrades in the event of prolonged outages. They might even apply for disaster compensation after major events.
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i'm a field tech for a wireless carrier and generally we lose telco during the storms so i guess if they want to get that anal about it then they will have to make all the telephone companies come up with a miracle cure to keep the t1's from ever going down as well.
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I for one wish they would make carriers build backup generators for towers. I still recall the major blackout in the summer of 2003 that hit a good chunk of the east coast. Cell phones didn't even, work, except for T-Mobile.. oddly. Carriers really need to be better prepared for things like katrina. Many americans rely on their cell phones. Many don't even have landlines anymore in order to save costs.
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Verizon worked fine as well. I remember that blackout - I was working at a grocery store at the time and I remember the pandamonium. I remember constantly being connected with my Verizon cell.
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I guess some areas worked, i had verizon back then and so did many of my coworkers and nobody's worked, only the one who had T-Mobile. Not until about 8pm that night did mine actually connect.
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