Uh oh. The fine print says that Cell phone service is knocked out by power outages. Good old POT providers were required to provide backup electricity, and AFAIK land lines have always worked during power outages and other emergencies. Many is the time I have called out from a dark building over a trusty land line. Carry a cell phone for emergencies? Think again, in a REAL emergency these things are only good for keeping papers from blowing away! The cell phone companies, IMHO, get away with providing bad service, poor coverage, and now we learn, no power backup to cell tower sites, in exchange for everyone in the world scrambling to get one! I just hope they are as forgiving about MY next product! -- Lawrence Lile Mike Hord Sent by: pic microcontroller discussion list 08/14/2003 04:55 PM Please respond to pic microcontroller discussion list To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU cc: Subject: [EE]: Blackout After hearing the news today, I'm recalling a description of the big outage in '76 (? I'm too young to remember) in the same region. IIRC, in my power systems class, we discussed the matter, and my prof said that the same issue could cause it again, and that, due to the sheer scale of the infrastructure, it was virtually impossible to effect cost-effective refurbishing of the system to prevent it. This sounds like the same deal...Anyone have any thoughts on the matter? Mike H. _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu