On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 12:31:02 EDT, Foxs Mercantile
wrote:

So from just a logistic standpoint, how many amateurs would
have been required to bridge 11 million customers?

Do not assume that all 11 million customers would be calling 9-1-1 at
the same time. The public relations value of saying "11 million
customers were stranded" is worth its weight in gold when pointing the
finger.

And where would they be deployed?

That's up to the Emergency Manager - that's why s/he's paid the big
(taxpayer) bucks. In reality that would all be in accordance with a
"continuity of operations" plan jointly developed by the EM and the
carriers. That's where the ball fell down, to coin a phrase, not in
the links from the PSAP to the responding agencies, which are the EM's
responsibility. The "intervening cause" (to use a phrase from tort
law) blurs any bright lines of responsibility.

The article mentioned this affecting
81 call centers. And how many responding agencies/wire centers
are served by each PSAP? Wouldn't that require at least one
amateur at the PSAP and one more at each served end point?

Yep, that's how we are "billeted", but that was not the situation at
hand. The situation at hand was the breakdown in the Rube Goldberg
approach to 9-1-1 call routing.

How rapidly could they be deployed?

If the roads are open, how fast can I drive from home to the hospital?
(No more than ten minutes usually).

Based on the article, I doubt the problem persisted for more
than eight hours. Certainly less than one whole day.

It shouldn't have happened at all, is what I'm saying. The "alternate
routing" should have kicked in seamlessly. When I was doing FCC
communications we had no-notice drills of that constantly, including
"the Telco circuits are down, use the HF circuits". Surely Verizon
Wireless et al could do the same sort of exercises.

Best of all, the 9-1-1 traffic from the initial wire center should
have gone to the PSAP directly, but that's a dead horse it seems.

And course, there's the liability issue. Hypothetically, how
many lawyers would be involved if just one amateur dropped the
ball? Or even if they did everything right, and something bad
happened anyway.

When activated, we are covered by the same governmental immunity that
public safety personnel are. The old "Western Union" rule applies -
we are obligated to receive the traffic with no guarantee of eventual
delivery. In plain language - you get what you get.

73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane

From a Clearing in the Silicon Forest
Beaverton (Washington County) Oregon