North American Network Operators Group

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RE: London incidents

  • From: Michael.Dillon
  • Date: Mon Jul 11 05:41:35 2005

> Mobile networks in particular have been put under
> pressure as people use their phones to contact friends
> and family following the explosions.

Luckily, I was 10 minutes late leaving home otherwise
I could very well have been on that first train which
was attacked near Aldgate. When the Central Line shut
down, I tried to get a bus, and when all the bus
service into central London was shut down I gave up
and started walking home. I suspected that the rumours
of terrorist attack were true.

All this while I was trying unsuccessfully to use my
mobile to ring the office. Finally, I decided to try
sending a text message and this worked. Text messages
normally are delivered virtually instantaneously and
there is a time stamp indicating when the message was
sent. During the morning and early afternoon of 
Thursday, I was receiving text messages that had been
sent between 20 minutes and one hour previous.

Some of the problems on the mobile networks were the
result of a protocol to reserve mobile capabilities for
the emergency services. The police have the authority to
switch cells to emergency service and then people with
specially registered SIM cards in their mobile can
take priority. Presumably, some amount of capacity is
also held in reserve for these people as well.

I had moved the weekend before and my landline was not
yet installed. Also, I live near a large hospital. I noticed
that my mobile didn't function at all even late on Thursday
unless I left home and travelled a kilometer or two from
the hospital. Presumably, the cells in this suburban
location had also been switched to emergency service.

--Michael Dillon