[aprssig] Re: Cell phone and Pager alerts

[Stan - N0YXV]

Cell Phones? What are those?

All joking aside one thing you have to remember is that Cell Phones and their 
availability is a spotty thing not a constant. Here in Nebraska we have lots of 
spots where text messaging doesn't even work not to mention the areas that 
don't have any coverage at all. While you might have a good coverage and 
bandwidth in one part of the country you might have very spotty or no exsisting 
coverage in others. I know in my town we have had trouble getting a circuit on 
a good day let alone an emergency. Remember the old recording, "I'm sorry but 
all circuits are busy right now?". We thought that pharse was dead but it's 
still alive and living in cell phone land. Customer base isn't large enough to 
justify the cost of upgrading the system. While in large Metropolitian areas 
you might have two or three cell phone towers there are areas of the country 
that go completely dark when their only tower goes down. As for "More bars in 
more areas" I'd settle for one bar where there are none.

I guess my point boils down to one thing. Don't forget that a one size fits all 
solution usually doesn't exsist. Even if you thought the cell phone system 
could handle all the extra data could it handle it everywhere?