I love GPRS! [Archive] - Thoughts Media Forums

Janak Parekh

08-14-2003, 11:05 PM

We're in the midst of one of the worst power failures in NYC - EVERYTHING is down here, but I still have my Internet & PPCT fix -- thanks to T-Mobile. :lol: <br /><br />Seriously, I'm on my PPCPE, which seems more reliable than the phones here right now. Having alternative communications is growing more useful by the day. Have you ever used such tools in emergencies?

Fzara

08-14-2003, 11:16 PM

Good to hear from you. At least we know you're safe, and have communication.

Janak, in NJ right now, the T-Mobile network and towers are disconnecting callers randomly, and are sometimes denying calls because of the circuits being completely filled.

So, my question is, how is your GPRS working properly using T-Mobile? You're in NYC, which should even be more congested than NJ.

On a sidenote, Janak, some more speculation is showing that there is a possibility some of these shortages were created by the new computer worm which was going around the net this past week.

beq

08-15-2003, 12:00 AM

^ Hmm, I wouldn't think that's likely (about Blaster worm cause)...

Can't access a primary mail acct right now :(

danmanmayer

08-15-2003, 12:09 AM

Yeah imagine having a research paper to write. Your working on it at about 11 at night and the internet goes out. OH NO research was bookmarked.... after being pissed and hoping the net would come back i just visited all the research sites on my pocket pc phone and read all the information and finished my paper with no problems. It took a little long wasn't as easy but was a life saver.

Fzara

08-15-2003, 12:13 AM

^ Hmm, I wouldn't think that's likely (about Blaster worm cause)...

Can't access a primary mail acct right now :(

I don't know. Like I said, it is speculation. Speculation is when any kind of an idea is developed to possibly show the cause of an event.

rbrome

08-15-2003, 12:32 AM

Had the same exact experience the other day. Big chunk of Philly was out for most of the day Tuesday:

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/6515862.htm

...it affected both my office and apartment. No power for 10 hours. GPRS helped for a bit mid-day, but then my laptop battery died. :-(

ikesler

08-15-2003, 12:33 AM

When I lived in NYC and 9/11 happened........ the only way I could get through to anyone was via Instant Messanger (somehow the internet connection was still up?) and my Blackberry........ I was talking to people all day like that..........
It was a godsend....... :)
Hope all are well and getting home safe!

Paragon

08-15-2003, 12:34 AM

Well guys, it's out here in Ontario as well. I just left Toronto (total mess). Fido, and Rogers GSM/GPRS networks seem to be holding up so far. .....GO XDA! :)

Dave

`helios

08-15-2003, 12:54 AM

beq

08-15-2003, 12:57 AM

Ouch. First this:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=1&u=/ap/20030814/ap_on_re_us/blackout
"Officials were looking at a power transmission problem from Canada as the most likely cause, said a spokeswoman for New York Gov. George Pataki."
I was all set to blame Canadians as I'm prone to do, always the likely scapegoats...

Then Canadian Prime Minister strikes back. According to CNN, his office now reports that cause was lightning strike on a Niagara Falls power plant in NY (Niagara Mohawk Power Grid), which caused cascading failures all over USA and Canada. Aww... :(

Well, maybe now I can pay more attention to the MS/Blaster connection rumors and start blaming Microsoft :mrgreen:

snap

08-15-2003, 01:06 AM

.

Janak, in NJ right now, the T-Mobile network and towers are disconnecting callers randomly, and are sometimes denying calls because of the circuits being completely filled.

So, my question is, how is your GPRS working properly using T-Mobile? You're in NYC, which should even be more congested than NJ.

I believe carriers will have typically have a number of channels dedicated to voice, a number of channels dedicated to GPRS, and the rest of the channels are shared (with priority to voice). This allows voice traffic to be utilized the most efficiently without completely shutting off data service.

Fzara

08-15-2003, 01:11 AM

maximus

08-15-2003, 01:46 AM

We're in the midst of one of the worst power failures in NYC - EVERYTHING is down here, but I still have my Internet & PPCT fix -- thanks to T-Mobile. :lol:

Reading this thread reminds me of the Terminator 3 movie. Viruses working together to force humanity to its knees. Ha ha.

Seriously, I'm on my PPCPE seems more reliable than the phones here right now. Having alternative communications is growing more useful by the day. Have you ever used such tools in emergencies?

I use it on daily basis (ICQ and sms from a GPRS pocket PC) to lower down my voice bills. I cannot imagine doing this relationship without GPRS. We will be as dead as a cat in the water.

As for emergency, when I was in bali covering the bali bombs, all the phonelines are jammed, no signal on my mobilephone. The only communication available is by using ham radios provided by the local folks, we have to pay per minutes.

pre

08-15-2003, 01:48 AM

GPRS uses time slots just like a voice call. At a minimum there are 2 slots reserved and more can be assigned as needed. Or they can have more slots assigned only for GPRS. So could be they have far more voice users who are overloading the capacity and fewer data users who aren't.

SHoTTa35

08-15-2003, 02:10 AM

yeah... hehe crappy verizon network here went down and nobody could call but they were text messaging me. I'm on AT&T and all my calls go thru (except to verizon and other places :D) But it's good that they could still get thru to me thru text messages.

Jeff Rutledge

08-15-2003, 02:12 AM

These are the only times I like working at a call center that calls Americans. Since most States had no power, we were sent home for the night, and luckily, this side of Canada still has power.

boo ya! :twisted:

Same here. Thankfully the West of Canada wasn't affected. Double thankfully, as I technically work for our Toronto office, I went home early too. :rock on dude!:

dave

08-15-2003, 04:51 AM

good thing you and the outage aren't in dallas. tmobile bites down here. got tired of paying $20 a month for unlimited spinning globes. on my frequent travels to boston, the service was awesome. down here i had to frequently pull myself off the ledge of throwing my t68 out the window of my truck due to staring at a scrolling 'Calling' screen.

plus, my boss made me switch to nextel. no good PDA data options, but wifi on the 5455 meets most of those needs. plus, nationwide direct connect rules. anyone have any word on how that is holding up during this outage?

daS

08-15-2003, 04:52 AM

Have you ever used such tools in emergencies?
Back in 1994 when we had the big earthquake in Southern California, power was out, and no phone calls could be made within the area, but long distance calls worked. I tried calling my brother who was in Maryland at the time to let him know I was OK, and for him to get the message to the rest of my family. Unfortunately, he was at work and I didn't have his phone number. So I wrote an email message on my HP 200LX palmtop and send it using a battery operated pocket modem (long before PC Card modems) and he was able to call the other family members in LA. I also posted a message on the HPHAND forum on CompuServe (might be considered the great grandfather of the Pocket PC Thoughts forums. :mrgreen: ) to tell my friends there that I was okay.

Raphael Salgado

08-15-2003, 04:59 AM

I went from Jersey City to Hoboken to Newark to Edison, in a total of six hours. I caught the most local bus that nearly stopped every two feet, not to mention every blinking traffic light. I must admit it was a scary thing to see - streets of Newark, deserted and dark like we got wiped out or something. I had my Samsung i700 PPCPE on me, and while I fought with other people trying to get on the circuits, I managed to read off the entire CNN article (through Skweezer) to the people on the back of the bus, so that we all got the rumors of terrorism and nuclear explosions squashed.

Evee Ev

08-15-2003, 05:00 AM

oh man! that really sucks...for me, janak! i've been stuck at work (i got off work at 4p but had to stay) and our internet just got back online. and my mobile phone from sprint? fogetaboutit! nothing doin'.!!!!

Abba Zabba

08-15-2003, 06:07 AM

I was trying to get a hold of family in the NE all day since the power outage. All I kept hearing was all circuits are busy. My mother in law has Nextel and she said that her phone just died on her and she didn't get service until almost 9 in the night. It's good to see that some were able to connect trought GPRS :mrgreen:

Paul

08-15-2003, 06:14 AM

My emergency is when the cable modem goes out or the rare chance that electricity goes out like it did in NY & Canada today. I'm all set between my Bluetooth GPRS phone, Bluetooth iPaq and Bluetooth enabled laptop. :D

phanprod

08-15-2003, 07:17 AM

I believe the problem with the cell phones here in NY wasn't with the system itself, but moreso the availability of lines dedicated to them. 9 out of 10 times, my Verizon phone would 'attempt' to complete a call, but end up timing out when there was no available line for the connection. Following that theory, data would be uninterrupted because it uses no physical or virtual lines.

And as for the land lines working as opposed to the cell lines, there were MANY more people trying to make cell calls. Think about it - just about everyone's at work on phone systems. No power, no system. So they revert to the cell. Boom. Voice overload. As the demand went down, the calls went through. But through it all, data was fine.

I have power here now, but two towns south of me is the 'line of darkness' so to speak. Through it all, I really upset my neighbors... we have a generator here (purchased after the Hurricane Floyd fiasco a few years back), so we were basking in the fans and watching Direct TV while they sat outside in their driveways. :lol: And yeah, there was heavy Ham radio usage going on here as well to keep in touch with the family that was still at work. But no data for me. DSL was down at the central office. Sad.

Elad Yakobowicz

08-15-2003, 07:31 AM

I walked into my house... turned the lights on... and the power went off, lol. Drove me crazy not to have an internet connection for 7 hours. Even my cell phone had to die right then and there!

Mike Temporale

08-15-2003, 01:03 PM

I'm finally back on line. GPRS for me didn't matter since the phone network is just jammed full.

It's nice to have the power back online. I want to thank all of the people who worked all night to get us back up. :clap: :way to go:

ppc4me

08-15-2003, 05:16 PM

I read of PPC or other handhled / cellphone screens being used as a flashlight. I utilized my ipaq in my office to dial the phone via the light of the screen. It got the job done - didn't even need that flashlight program that give the all white screen! Now I know why I have that app.

During the start of the outage, I had ATT cell phone and GPRS signal indication but the voice circuits were busy and the GPRS never connected (or I just got tired of waiting...)

hudsonmobile

08-15-2003, 07:59 PM

My Pocket PCs came in very handy during the blackout -- T-Mobile phone edition helped (when I could get through) for calls and checking email, and my Dell Axims were alternately flashlights and time-killing game machines... (I am much better at Hexacto Lemonade now than I was before the blackout)

Janak Parekh

08-15-2003, 08:37 PM

So, my question is, how is your GPRS working properly using T-Mobile? You're in NYC, which should even be more congested than NJ.
Dunno. I had to try a few times though. ;)

Bigger problem afterwards: the cell towers ran out of backup power, so I had nothing. :cry:

Anyway, I'm back on Long Island and in full power now. Showers are such an amazing thing... (I have stories and pictures, which I'll put up in the off-topic thread when I get my bearings back; however, I did get to walk 90+ blocks and climb 12 stories after that. Yay!)

--janak

Ekkie Tepsupornchai

08-16-2003, 02:00 AM

Yeah, I was flying back from Newark to LAX... didn't know about the outage until I went to return my rental car at about 5pm EST Thursday (about 50 minutes after everything went out)... was stuck in the airport for a few hours (which is far better than many others did).

I'm in the same boat as Janak. I couldn't get GPRS working right the first several times, but finally got on and was able to hold onto my signal for a while.