Thursday morning’s AT&T meltdown raised a lot of eyebrows - and for me - a lot of questions. I’m sure I am not the only one. The popular genre of dystopian movies and novels provide lots of triggers for what happens when you can’t use your phone. We use our phones for almost everything these days. And while it was still fine with wifi and you can use the camera and other features, if you were relying on a cell signal, you couldn’t call anyone. The scary part of that was that the 911 call centers were unreachable by many for a few hours.
Back in August of 2005 Hurricane Katrina smothered the Gulf Coast with a wall of sea water and a hefty wind field. Our Mississippi Coastal home was flooded, as was most everything from New Orleans to Mobile. Since the damaged area was so large, it was months before the “necessary” services were operational. Water, electricity, and phone service were down and out. The first thing to become operational, as I remember it, was my cellular flip phone. Texting was the first ability, followed by calls. I wore that thing out (and that was before unlimited anything!). It would be a long time before phone landlines were working again and by the time they were, we decided we didn’t need it. So, since 2005 me and Maggy have not had a landline. For voice-to-voice communication, we are totally dependent on cellular technology.
So I do not mind admitting there was a moment when my phone had no cell signal and a few worries crossed my mind. I didn’t have an agonizing meltdown or anything like that, but I did wonder. What would we do?
Although we pick at the younger generations a bit, I do know that many young people would not know intuitively how to use a landline telephone. They have never had to do so. For me, and maybe for younger folks too, I do not even know another person’s phone number. I barely remember mine! I just ask Siri to call whoever I want to call. That doesn’t bode well for a cyber attack that would take out our cellular systems. And in today’s world… is that such a far fetched idea?
I don’t have a lot more to say about that… and I didn’t think about it long. Cell service was restored. AT&T says they were running an update. In that same vein, I have some ocean front property in Arizona to sell you if you’re interested. We’ll probably never know why, but we will just be glad to see those bars and feel good about being able to call someone if we would like to. Now I can go back to wondering why someone called me in reply to a text! The nerve!
Communication is tricky, no matter how many tools we have at our disposal.
I’ve watched lots of movies where the power grid goes down, or the ice age has come and frozen our world (I never see that as a theory any more), or a disease ravages the masses or nuclear explosion poisons the earth or zombies take over the world and you have to go on the run. I’m still mad at The Walking Dead for killing Glenn in season 7, and the way they did it. That was the end of that show for me.
Anyway, what would we do? I hope we never have to answer that question!
I hope your week is going well, your cell service remains operational, and all your books and movies have happy endings.
Remember Who is in control.
There are no surprises in the throne room of Heaven.
Case closed.
A couple of years ago I replaced my electric phone attached to my landline with an old-style one so that if the electric goes down I have a phone using the old copper system. Cell signal here is patchy and weak so we can't rely on it. Infrastructure is incredibly vulnerable to disruption these days.