mercredi 11 septembre 2013

AT&T And T-Mobile Get Together For Sandy Sufferers To Communicate

By Cornelius Nunev


The Federal Communications Commission states that, in the 10 states hit by Sandy, about a quarter of all cell towers are down. That makes for crowded networks and dropped calls. However, rivals AT&T and T-Mobile are putting aside their difference for some time to combine networks and help sufferers in New Jersey and New York City to connect.

Get some help

Since Sandy hit, many have had trouble getting a cellular connection in the regions hit by the "super storm." The networks have been crowded and land lines have been down entirely. Would-be callers in the impacted areas are plagued with "all circuits are busy" messages.

T-Mobile pointed out that in New York City, 20 percent of the network was down, which is not so good news in a city that big.

But AT&T and T-Mobile are doing something to help. They have made a temporary deal to share GSM and 3G networks with no roaming charges and no service agreement changes or rate plan changes.

The companies both use UMTS and GSM standards, meaning they can share networks since they are compatible.

Callers need do nothing different

In a press release, both AT&T and T-Mobile said that their customers will have to do nothing out of the ordinary when making a call. When they make a call in any of the impacted areas, no matter which of the two carriers they use, the least congested network at that time will manage the call.

Expecting it to get better

Although the deal is a temporary one, there is no telling how long it may continue. The ongoing inclement weather makes the job of getting those communications towers back up all the more slow and difficult.

FCC chairman Genachowski explained:

"Our assumption is that communications outages could get worse before they get better, particularly for mobile."

Backup generators may not last long enough while operating cell towers until power is restored. Nobody knows when the power will come back on.

Just advertising a brand

There is a ton of advertising associated with the good deed AT&T and T-Mobile are both doing, and even though it is a nice thing for both companies to do, there is a pretty good chance they also want to publicity.




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