Millions of Verizon customers lost cellphone service this past Monday for about 8 hours. Days later we still have no idea of the cause because Verizon has not issued an explanation or even an apology. Do they even care?
We’ve become so used to being connected all the time, that losing that connection was an unpleasant surprise and something we can no longer take for granted. I’ve thought about what that means and wanted to share some thoughts on this:
We need a backup plan – We need an alternative way to make calls in case of a cellular service outage happens again. The good news is we have the technical means to do that now using our phones, if someone offered the service.
Most smart phones can use multiple eSIM cards ; they are installed a few minutes using an app. That would allow us to add a second carrier to our phone. In an outage we could simply switch to the other eSIM and use the second carrier. Today most cellular companies require us to make long term commitments or charge us even when we don’t use their service, but that could easily change.
It could be sold as an option, call it backup calling Insurance, for a couple of dollars per month that only charges us normal rates when we use the service. The provider could be one of the cellular companies, or a company like Apple that offers the backup service as an option for their iPhones. Apple loves to sell accessories and services, and this would be very popular.
Cellular connections are in surprising places – Losing cell service affected many things we never expected. Parking lots payment terminals, parking meters, credit card terminals, and vending machines, are just a few things that rely on a cell connection to operate and process payments. When cell service goes down none of these work.
GPS needs cellular – Apple Maps or Google Maps relies on a cellular connection to provide direction. How many became lost or were on an unfamiliar road just before the service went out? Perhaps we should be carrying paper maps. Those using the built in GPS systems might have fared better, because they use satellite to connect.
Emergency calling – Many rely on cellular as their only connection, having canceled their home phones years ago. Fortunately cell phones still allow us to call 911 because it’s designed to work with another carrier.
App-enabled services were lost – Services that use an app on our phone and rely on connectivity suddenly became unavailable. You couldn’t call an Uber and they could not let you know when they arrived. You can’t call Door Dash or Uber Eats to deliver food.
Home WiFi cellular still needs cellular – Even though our phones are designed to use a WiFi connection to make calls, that doesn’t work during the outage because the network facilities that process the call were offline.
Alternatives – With a WiFi connection you could still use WhatsApp, messaging, and FaceTime.