Weder die Bundesregierung noch die Boston Police ordnete eine Abschaltung der Mobilfunknetze nach dem Bombenanschlag beim Boston-Marathon am Montag, 15 April an. Die Systeme brachen zusammen weil zu viele Menschen gleichzeitig telefonierten. Amateur Radio Newsline’s Norm Seeley, KI7UP, explains:

On April 18th outgoing FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said the FCC would follow up on cellular service issues at the Boston Marathon. This while emphasizing that broadband services had not been shut down after the bombings.

Genachowski conceded that the event again raised issues of communications and public safety like those the FCC has been working on for some time. However he went on to acknowledge that wireless networks were so overwhelmed by the temporary surge in traffic, that there were incorrect media reports that mobile services had actually shut down when they had not been.

What appears to be a fact is that most cellphone subscribers erroneously believe that the phone in their pocket should function perfectly 100 percent of the time. The reality is that the no cellular system currently in use can handle 100% of all of its subscribers at any one time. Or even 50% for that matter.

Most experts say that when most cellphone systems reach between 15 to 20 percent of its subscribers simultaneously using the service that it is at a point of limited network density. In other words it cannot handle any more subscribers more until those on-line hang up.

 And that’s what appears to have happened in Boston after the two bombs at the marathon finish line went off. It’s also why the autonomous Boston Marathon ham radio communications networks continued to function flawlessly even when the cellphones failed.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I’m Norm Seeley, KI7UP, in Scottsdale, Arizona.

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Quelle: http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?389030-Amateur-Radio-Newsline%99-Report-1863-%96-April-26-2013