Mobile Phone Providers Prepare for Power Outages [telecom]

Oct 09, 2019 1 Replies

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Bill Horne 6 years ago

Some wireless phones should still function, but service may be spotty

By Chris Chmura and James Jackson

Mobile phone providers are gearing up to keep wireless service up and running this week, as much of the San Francisco Bay Area will be without power during planned PG&E outages.

NBC Bay Area asked the four largest phone carriers what they're doing to prepare, and whether customers can count on using their phones.

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HAncock4 6 years ago

Historical Notes:

The classic No. 6 dry cell was once widely used in telephone and industrial service. (As a kid I used them for hobbyist experiments - they lasted forever).

Here's an ad from 1946:

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(Note the Bell Labs micro-chemistry ad on the preceding page).

Here's an ad from 1945:

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(Note the Clare relay ad on the preceding page).

Here's an ad from 1938:

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(scattered on the following pages are ads for other types of Eveready batteries. Scattered on the preceding pages are ads from Automatic Electric for telephone supplies and Western Electric for carrier current equipment.)

Then going back to 1921 we have an ad for telephone batteries from Telephony magazine.

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You can scroll through each of the above magazines. Interesting historical technology, including radio and induction communications and switching relay logic.

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