Backup power boom expected after FCC ruling
BACK-UP POWER manufacturers are rubbling their hands in glee over an FCC ruling that requires telecom and wireless providers to furnish backup power equipment for cellular network sites and remote telecom facilities.
The order follows a review of widespread communications outages during the destruction of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina over two years ago.
The new FCC regulation requires telecom central offices to have backup power to keep them up for 24 hours during a power grid outage. It requires that cellular wireless sites be able to operate for eight hours on backup power.
There are reportedly more than 210,000 cellular sites and 20,000 telecom central offices in the US.
CTIA, a cellular telecommunications industry trade group, has filed a lawsuit in opposition to the FCC order, claiming that it will cost the industry hundreds of millions of dollars to comply. CTIA estimates that the industry had total annual revenues of over $134 billion in 2007.
In working to comply with the FCC's ruling, US telecommunications companies and cellular wireless providers are expected to face problems with municipal regulations, facilities lease terms, equipment availability and site retro-fitting.
However, companies that provide backup power generators and batteries can anticipate significantly higher demand for their products over the next few years as the telecom and wireless vendors struggle to comply with the FCC's ruling. ยต
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Land lines have rooms full of batteries to keep the lines in case of a power outage so people can call for help. Nice to finally see it applied to the cell phones.
And all this upgraded, power-redundant wireless is going to be completely free to the customer with all costs being absorbed by the providers, right? Right? Anybody there? Can you hear me now?

Hope you're all ready to pay out the nose for this. Yet another example of .gov interference in a supposedly free country.
It's idiotic to assume that the telecoms infrastructure is going to survive a major disaster, like an earthquake, flood, fire, or a severe storm. If the towers get ripped down, then what? Not only will you have downed cell towers, but leaking diesel fuel, exploding batteries, etc.

This plan will do nothing to help those in need of emergency services get immediate help. There are better ways to do this.

The problem has not been technology. Rather, the problem with Katrina was not technical. It was the politicians' unwillingness (and continued unwillingness) to do anything about the plight of the poor, in New Orleans and elsewhere.

As a practical matter, if you must have some sort of backup generator tied to a tower, the best solution would be solar (or wind in severe storm areas). You'd be generating power throughout the lifetime of the cell tower, and you'd only use it all up after the disaster. Surely, the power can stay up for 24 hours while first responders are coming on to the scene?

The FCC: always the last one to the ball. Their actions will no doubt harm the interests of the telecoms. Given that, it is an interesting question whether such a plan would be beneficial if the telecoms took it upon themselves to implement it.

Yes, it would cost them mucha wonga. They'd have to raise prices/slash dividends. Also, they could market themselves as "forward thinking" and "looking out for the interests of the customer". These claims cannot be made currently. At least they're looking out for their shareholders, if no one else.

Me, I'm going HAM radio. If nothing else has been proven in this era of disasters, it's that HAM and shortwave rule the skies, once mainstream radio is swept out.
In my opinion the cell phone companies already do a pretty good job of getting their equipment operating after a disaster. Why, because of profits. They don't want to lose revenue so they make sure people can use the equipment. This ruling just levels the playing field and sets a standard so the service will be more consistent. The profits gained will pay for it.
Apparently you are not aware of the fact that wind towers go offline when the speed (or force) of the wind rises above a certain threshold.
A combination of solar and wind would be best if disaster-recovery operation is the goal.