AT&T users: remember two weeks ago
when our phones were malfunctioning due to local towers being down and
scheduled outages? We didn't have our 4G, we couldn’t call, send or receive
texts; our phones were worthless for all of, what...two, maybe three days?
We were posting on our Facebooks and
Twitter feeds about how much AT&T sucked. But think…at least we had
internet. And a home to be on our computer at.
Now imagine what Hurricane Sandy has
done. The havoc it has wreaked upon the Northeast. We're not talking about
towers being down for repairs. We're talking towers destroyed. We're talking no
power, not just no cell service.
Service providers are scrambling, as we
speak, round the clock, to get customers their connections back. It seems
damages just cannot be repaired fast enough, as extensive as they are.
According to the Huffington Post, in a
statement Thursday afternoon, officials from the Federal Communications
Commission said there were “steady improvements” to networks in affected areas,
but that “much work remains to be done to restore service fully.” No estimate
on how long it would take for wireless service to fully recover was given,
though on Wednesday it was reported that repairs could take several additional
days.
Thankfully, calls to 911 are still
functioning, though a few setbacks, such as location information not coming
through and re-routing have been occurring and repairs went underway almost
instantly after the storm hit.
Not only are storm victims of the
Northeast out of cell service, they’re out of cash, too. Electrical grid
failure and massive power outages have ATM’s down and people out of money in situations,
such as restaurants (which are serving by candlelight) where only cash can be
accepted.
In a place where resources are thin,
people struggle to find the essentials.
So, I guess our little local cell
service hiccup can be overlooked, yeah? I think so.
I guess what I always get to thinking
about in times of natural disasters is how fortunate some of us are and how
super storms, such as Sandy, can shake a person’s entire way of life, making access
to the internet and our cell phones seem like miniscule problems.
Yes, here in
good ‘ol VC we’ve had our fair share of whether experiences, but really…can you
even imagine what it must be like to be living in the aftermath of Sandy?
Yes, I remember this outage happening. People around me went nuts. What's sad is that people trying to contact me were more upset than I was. I suppose I was a little irritated about the outages, but honestly, my life doesn't revolve around my phone. For me, it was an easy thing to overlook. The victims of Sandy? I don't know what it'd be like, but they have got to be going crazy! I watched an SNL skit last night that mentioned the loss of power that takes away all media outlets that New York residents use. It warns, in specific, the Mexican people of New York to be patient with the residents because they will be irritable due to their loss of connections. I could go without cell phones, but being without ATM's would be hard. These are critical to so many people who go to them daily to get their money. Cash runs out quick, so they may need to start using less for the time being. Compared to Sandy, we really have nothing to complain about. Hopefully all the people on the East Coast heal and repair quickly.
ReplyDeleteMy roommate has AT&T and he was extremely mad about the service. Luckily we still had power and the internet. I don't even want to imagine what it would be like to be without power for as long as the people out East were. I would say that the internet and other devices are a major part of my life, so I don't think I would handle it very well. The fact that people are out of money because of the ATMs being down doesn't help at all. It is just a sad story all around, and Sandy has caused a lot of damage to people.
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