What is each cell phone tower powered by? Is it the local power system, or do they have their own backup supply in the event of a power outage?
If the regular telephone system goes ka-put in the event of a hurricane or an ice storm, would the cell phone system continue functioning?
In the event of a disaster, would my ancient CB set be a better bet than a new cell phone?
FixedBack
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I think it depends on whether it is analog or digital. Satelite is used more frequently now, which is why you would still be able to talk, digitally speaking. Analog on the other hand is radio waves I think…help me ou SDers. 
Local communications carrier checking in here… Those top-hat style towers you see along I-95 (and other places) are linked to stations that are powered by standard power utilities. The only equipment that is on emergency backup is the network monitoring hardware, allowing me to see the system go down so I can take immediate & swift action… right.
Cell traffic isn’t considered a high priority, especially in the event of some state of emergency such as you mentioned. Heck, it isn’t even considered secure for sensitive discussions.
I get the feeling that we (the carrier) view cell phones as toys. That’s not to say that they aren’t important to a lot of people, and we do put a heck of a lot of money into network maintenance & customer service, but when that hurricane whips through the area you can bet cell relay stations will be way down on the list of things to fix.
Unless you are using some sort of exotic suitecase satellite phone, or an Iridium phone (and you’d know it if you were using one :)), you’re still transmitting to a local tower, regardless of digital or analog type.
The towers need electrical power from the power company; I don’t know if they have any backup power at all.
However, if the phone system goes out, it’s NOT because of the electrical power going out. Landline phone companies have battery backup systems, so the phones don’t go out just because the power does. They DO go out, though, if a tree or something takes out a telephone pole- along with the power, but not because of the power being out.
To be safe, you really need a satellite phone, like the Iridium phone, that doesn’t require terrestrial power.
Arjuna34
To add to opus’s interesting comment about cell phones viewed as “toys”:
The landline phone carriers have the exact opposite view (or at least the used to). They wanted EXTREME reliability, and saw the power companies as orders of magnitude to unreliable to deliver power. Hence the banks of batteries ready to power telephones. I think this attitude goes back to the early days of telephones. There is generally some distrust and even animosity towards electrical utilities and phone companies, which causes them to avoid relying on each other whenever possible.
Arjuna34
I’m not sure if cellular stations have backup power like land line switched do but probably so. I’d be curious to know if they are as earthquake proof as the old telephone switch buildings were. Keep in mind that with any telephone call there are a lot of places the call can be broken so that CB might be a good backup provided you can find someone else on the air.
Tray, Cellular - digital or analog - is not satellite. The call may make a satellite jump along the way but the handset is communicating directly with a cellular station on land. If you have an Iridium phone then you’re communicating directly with a sat from the handset.
Digital and analog signals are both transmitted as radio waves.
How’s this for an answer: A big, fat, “it depends.” Different cellular operators use different methods to power different sites. In a heavily-trafficked urban environment, most cell sites have both a utility connection and battery (or even generator!) backup, as [url=http://www.wirelessweek.com/News/Dec98/five1214.htm]this story about the San Francisco power outage in 1998[/url recounts. The same tends to be true along major inter-city highways. In more rural areas, many providers simply use the utility, and roll a truck if there is a disconnect. In really remote areas, I’ve even heard that some sites use solar power and a battery, making the site self-sustaining but low-powered (I’ve not seen one of these).
Livin’ on Tums, vitamin E and Rogaine
the main problem is: if the land lines go out, so do the cell phones. after your signal gets to the cell station, (not a satilite, as someone said) it is transmited through good 'ol land lines. if you take out the land lines, you MIGHT be able to talk to other cell phones (only ones in the same cell as you), if (big if) the cell company has in-house trunking (not likly). to be completly safe, get a satilite phone. nothing will stop them unless the satilite goes out of alignment again.(remember a while back when nobody’s pager worked fo a few days?–that’s why.)
eggo
Yes I am with a landline carrier, not a mobil- I can see that I was not clear about that before, and your comments about landline reliability are basically correct- but only to a point. The banks of battery backups are in the basement of my building (and probaly every central office in the area), and are only for keeping the network management hardware up & delivering dial tone via land lines in the event of power disruptions. They do not pump out sufficient current to keep remote stations (like cell repeaters) alive.
Also, most of us are dependant on our local power company to keep our high tech phones alive (unless we also have battery backups in our homes). The same is true for businesses that use a PBX. Very few of us still have phones that are powered only by the 48VDC phone line. So yes, the land lines are very reliable- you will still get dial tone during a power out, and provided you have an old style phone that doesn’t require AC power to operate, you will still be able to place calls.
Seems like portable Ham Radio might be a good idea. You can get models that fit right in your vehicle and most Ham operators take their “hobby” serious enough to have a backup generator. Most clubs seem to view their radios as being valuable for emergency communications. You do have to get a license though, lot of power in those things.
I work in the wireless industry. In our area, where we have frequent weather emergencies, our switch is hurricane proof up through a category 5. We also have numerous back-up generators. In addition, our switch is earthquake proof. Since we provide emergency services to our local government and disaster relief organizations, and also because our customers rely on their phones during emergencies, keeping our systems working is extremely important to us. Our engineers have access to evacuated areas and during the last hurricane, they promptly addressed all damage caused by the storm to towers.
You do need landline phones to be working for most wireless calls, but in our area, they have the same commitment in emergency situations.
On my way to work everyday,I walk past a cellular pnone site that is equipted with it’s own generater.
Funneefarmer’s idea of going with ham radio for emergency communications is a good one.
Lots of Ham Radio clubs sponsor range extending repeater radio stations that allow you to use a small cell phone sized radio to talk to other hams over city wide ranges and to make regular non-commerical phone calls to non Hams.
Emergency communications is some thing Hams practice and train for year round.
Each year on the third weekend in june there is a national exercise in disaster communication called “Field Day” where groups all over the U.S. set up temporary radio stations in the field and try to contact as many other stations as posible any way possible ( short wave,VHF/UHF/SHF,via satalite,via radio data link, via television,etc ).
The license is easy to get with just a little bit of study.
Small handheld VHF and UHF transcever prices start at around $100.
For more info check out this site http://www.arrl.org
32 Bit Operating System
02 Bit Operator
Heck, the original telephones were voice powered. That old-time ringing crank actually powered a magneto to ring the bell.
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