Posted by: Eric Siegel
If you're planning on using the telephone system (PSTN, "POTS") or the cellular telephone system during an emergency or a pandemic, you may have some problems with congestion and lack of dial tone. This will probably be much worse for cellular than for the PSTN.
Also, the telephone system and cellular systems in residential areas are sized for residential traffic patterns; they may not have the capacity necessary when people are confined to their homes during a pandemic. There will be a high number of social calls during the day, and there will also be an unusual number of business calls. Plus, as recommended in my earlier blog about pandemic access, there may be an unusually high number of modem calls that tie up lines for hours.
If you absolutely need to ensure that your critical PSTN and cellular calls can circumvent congestion, you should investigate the U.S. Government Emergency Telecommunications Service (GETS) and Wireless Priority Service (WPS). These are available to commercial users that are crucial to national welfare; examples are financial institutions, food distributors, energy companies, transportation companies, and hospitals.
GETS users receive a calling card with a special access number and PIN. GETS calls are given emergency access and priority processing in the PSTN, with enhanced routing, exemption from any congestion control, and priority treatment at any queues. (They cannot interrupt ["preempt"] existing calls to seize circuits, however.) The charges are only 7 or 10 cents per minute.
WPS users dial a special code on their cellphones. Costs are a few dollars a month for the WPS service.
To investigate your eligibility for these services, go to the GETS and WPS websites:
Other nations may have similar services for the PSTN and for cellular; emergency services and telecommunications providers can furnish information.
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