I would prefer to have a cellular phone with me if things go bad. Grantd that there will be power, at least some of the time, has anyone followed the various carriers's Y2K status? Between cellular one, GTE, Sprint, MCI, forgot who else, which are the worst and best bet? Thank you. Also, forgot which is the phone that has the technology to keep people from tracing your location? PCS phone?

-- Jamie (jamiew@jam.net), December 15, 1999

Answers

Can someone tell me which cellular phone carrier has best chance to work in new year?

Yeah, the one you don't buy.

-- (murphys@law.com), December 15, 1999.

Who do you think really cares about your location? If you have to ask communications questions like that on a Y2K forum, you can't possibly be important enough for someone to really give a ****

-- for real (for@real.com), December 15, 1999.

"For Real", what's your problem? Back to cellular--if there is a widespread power failure, will cellular phones even work? Arn't cell repeater towers powered by the grid or do they have stand-by generators?

-- Lars (lars@indfy.net), December 15, 1999.

Jamie,

I have Cellular One. I don't think they are Y2K compliant because we got a notice from them that they were having problems with billing and would not get a bill this month. Maybe in three weeks.

To be honest, I wonder if even the Cellular phone companies will be running.

-- (Polly@troll.com), December 15, 1999.

Jamie:

Go see a psychic. Maybe they can tell you.

-- formerly (formerly@nowhere.zzz), December 15, 1999.

Good luck with Cell service, look at it now? We had a flood that knocked out cell service in our area for days. When I called the phone Co. to determine the story, they said a flood effected some equipment and it knocked out the service??? I would not count on your cell phone, may want to consider a CB??

-- abc (hshsh@good.com), December 15, 1999.

I have an AT & T cell phone account.

-- Paula (chowbabe@pacbell.net), December 15, 1999.

Bwahahahahaha!

My suggestions: Cans & String, Homing Pidgeons, Ham Radio, CB.

You are also taking the wrong approach. If it is THAT important, you'd get a contract with ALL of the carriers. And get a SAT phone too. That way, you'll have service unless they ALL go down. (in which case you shouldv'e taken my suggestions.)

All it takes is mon

-- quasimodo (hunchback@bltwor.com), December 15, 1999.

We were told that Nextel is compliant. They have back-up generators for all their towers.

-- JoseMiami (caris@prodigy.net), December 15, 1999.

Thanks Jose

-- Lars (lars@indy.net), December 15, 1999.

I have AT&T. They have problems here in SoCal in 1999. Guess they will still have those problems in 1900 or 2000, whichever their case will be.

-- Uncle Bob (UNCLB0B@AOL.COM), December 15, 1999.

I've got several friends who work in the engineering department at AT&T Wireless (previously LA Cellular) if you're in the Los Angeles area. My cellular service is with them as well

Anyway from what I hear, AT&T has been working on Y2K compliance issues for over 2 years. But even before Y2K preparadness, they've had a disaster recovery group that keeps them ready to move for any type of disasterous event (earthquakes and such). As far as backup power, they've got that covered too. Their cellsites were all built with backup power and they've got quite a few mobile generators for emergency deployment if needed. They've also got several mobile cellsites (like the one they used during the Northridge earthquake) that can be taken to wherever cellular service needs to be set up. During normal business operations, these units are pretty much on standby until something comes up where extremely high cellular traffic is expected (events such as the Rosebowl where a much higher number of folks with cell phones will require service in a particular area).

Air Touch has major unresolveable problems with the new system they recently put in and Y2K hasn't even gotten here yet. They dumped the Motorolla switch for a Nortel switch... I hear it's been a nightmare for their customers ever since.

Keep in mind though that cellular service is also dependent on the local phone company in whatever area the cellsite is located. So if GTE or Pacbell go down in a particular location, so could cellular service in that same area.

As far as tracing your location... hmmm... all cellular companies can trace your approximate location from their switches (if your phone is on). This is mandated by the FCC especially for the purpose of 911 calls. But if you're speaking of the general population trying to do it, it's a different story. There are scanners and such that criminals would use to capture your serial number and phone number, but that depends on how old your phone is and who your service is with. The AT&T service down here has under control. The digital phones can't be cloned, and if you have an old analog phone, they've got some type of fraud feature that requires a special code.

I stayed away from PCS because of it's limited coverage areas. I prefer having the ability to use my phone wherever I go, cause you never know where you might be when you really need to use it.

-- D Wilson (dwilson310@aol.com), December 16, 1999.

In the US pacific and western regions, my bet would be on AirTouch (the biggest), eastern US - Bell Atlantic, central - Cellular One or Sprint, in Europe - Vodafone.

-- Mork (standing@the_brink.now), December 16, 1999.

Afraid you mispoke there: "Air Touch has major unresolveable problems with the new system they recently put in and Y2K hasn't even gotten here yet. They dumped the Motorolla switch for a Nortel switch... I hear it's been a nightmare for their customers ever since."

Those problems only lasted for about a week in October. The Nortel switches are light years beyond Motorola's.

Also, AirTouch "finished" all their Y2K work last March. I know the head of engineering their, and have sseen their cell-site map. They have the most "dense" coverage in So Cal.

-- Mork (standing@the_brink.now), December 16, 1999.