I spent 45 minutes trying to figure out why my wife can't make or receive calls or texts on her iPhone. Reboot, hard reboot, reset network settings, etc. Just figured out there's a Verizon outage in the Tampa area that apparently affects us 70 miles south of there.
I have a back up cellphone in case something happens to mine. Never thought about needing a back up carrier as well. Our phones won't roam to some other network because they are still connected to Verizon's cell towers.
A coworker was complaining earlier this week that his Verizon connection was bad lately. I guess this outage might have been building up for a while now.
I dont know why, but Verizon in Florida goes out like 4-5 times a year. And the local 911 call centers are affected to, so no 911's calls to them either. Makes for a quiet day for them, while people are getting stabbed or shot and unable to contact emergency services.
Man what a mess that is. That is a huge problem in so many ways.
However, us ham radio operators are still communicating anyway.
Verizon agent told me 68 towers have been down this week due to past weather conditions...pretty as can be here all week!
This explains why I could not speak with my parents in Fort Myers yesterday for more than 30 seconds per call.
It was a bit of an eye opener. We still have a landline that we never use. My parent's do as well, except theirs is through Comcast and it wasn't working last week. Apparently, it hadn't been for several months and they didn't realize it. Like mine, they have it for their alarm system and don't use it otherwise.
We have a landline for that reason as well. Cell service mostly works but there are regular brief times when calls stop going through.
A couple years ago a construction company cut the main fiber to the local phone office. All gas pumps, retail stores, banks, and everything was down without internet / ACH connections. Cell service also stopped working because the towers were all connected to the one local office. That surprised people. The city basically shut down until the next morning.