Backup communications strategies for the family

In the article “Why You Need a ‘Zombie Apocalypse’ Phone” on CNN’s website, the author presents a case for having a separate communications device in an emergency.  While I think that the basic concept is a good idea, I think a separate cell phone is probably not the best thing.  In a disaster situation, where cell phones have been historically overloaded, another cell phone may not work.  I would that that at the very least, if you go this route, you would want to make sure the spare cell phone is on a separate network (for instance, if your primary phone is GSM, maybe get a CDMA or iDEN phone).

If voice isn’t needed as a backup, there are alternatives, which I’ve been blogging about in separate posts for a few years now.  Pagers are an old technology, but they are still around and work well.  Right now, I have a pager with American Messaging that uses Skytel’s 2-way network.  I can send and receive pages with my pager, and it has an email address.  So if a disaster happens, and phones don’t work, I can still email people messages with it.  I also am using old Blackberry technology with Velocita Wireless, which has been selling old Blackberries at very low prices, and service for $8/month.  Velocita uses Mobitex technology, American Messaging/Skytel uses ReFLEX technology.

The advantage to using these often-forgotten networks is that they are still viable, and are built for exchanging data in a very efficient manner.  These networks have been shown in a disaster to stay working while other networks get overloaded.  The success rate of these networks is that while they are “1G” and very slow (ReFLEX is max 6400 baud, Mobitex is 12.5KHz narrowband channels), they have been designed for low-speed data messaging between machines.  Currently these companies are trying to sell their services to smart grid applications and other machine to machine applications.   I hope they can get good business customers, as that will help fund the network to keep it running.  I suspect that when the customer base shrinks in an area, they just start shutting towers off.

The advantages of the ReFLEX coverage are a wider coverage pattern (at least where I live) than Mobitex.  I used to have alot of problems with two way pagers not being able to send, but Skytel has cleared that issue up where I live, and there are many places I can now send pages as well.  Coverage is decent at my house.  The advantages to the Mobitex network is you get an email address that can handle emails 4-8K in size (each).  The Skytel pager is only programmed for 500 characters maximum, making it great for short messages, but not routine emailing.   The Mobitex Blackberry can be used as a backup email account.  Mobitex has very spotty coverage where I live.  I would consider it “street-level” coverage, meaning that it doesn’t work in many buildings around my address, but this is to be expected, as I’m in a fringe area.  Usually if I take the Blackberry outside, I can get a signal.  Major cities have good Mobitex coverage, so it is worth considering if you are in a metro area.

I did not receive any compensation for this review.  I have been a happy customer of Velocita and American Messaging, and just wish to share my experiences on the blog.