Text Messaging Katrina

Wanted to pass along the tip below from a reader if you are looking for someone who has text messaging capability. It's worth a shot:

Family and friends on the coast, please tell them to try text messaging. My brother rode out the storm in Long Beach which is West of Gulfport and in one of the areas that took the hardest hit. We sent them a text message yesterday and got response by late afternoon. We thought all service was out and were amazed to get a reply. I understand that text messaging uses a different bandwidth. Pass this along to your readers.

Comments

[Shari]

great idea!

[tyler]

Has this been confirmed to work? More than likely if you can't call out or recieve calls, you can't send text messages. The voice data and the "text" data all enter the phone networks at the same point (towers).

Bandwidth isn't really the issue here. There's basically no bandwidth there because the hardware to provide that bandwidth has been destroyed. It's an infrastructure issue. The towers are probably no longer working in much of the region.

T-Mobile is trying to help though. They're awesome for allowing the general public free access to their data network hotspots as conditions warrant. Hopefully some people have PDA's with full batteries.

Who knows though. Maybe I'm way off.

[Nan]

I have tried text messaging a few people from NOLA today, haven't heard anything back yet though. It said my message was recieved from tower, but didn't say whether the cell phones in question recieved them. I will repost if it goes through. I am using www.vtext.com for those of you interested in trying this.

[Sunny]

They announced on FOX that text messaging has a better chance of getting through than calling. Now, if people could just charge their phones without power.

[Kathleen]

they said on one of the local tv stations that the messages would be kept on the servers until retrieved.

[clintcarter]

I read about satelite balloons that will transmit cell phone messages being launched within a year. That would revolutionize situations like this.

Where are the generators? None at the Superdome?

[MoreAFive]

I have been text messaging to family in south Mississippi and New Orleans area since Monday and have not received any responses as of yet.

[CoCo c'est juste]

I tried this with a friend in Baton Rouge about an hour ago and it worked. Got a response in 15 minutes. You still can't call the phone though.

[farmgirl]

Oh for the old radio operators..the ones who had room full of equipment and talked all over the world to other radio operators..

the really serious ones ..they saved many lives and passed on emergency messages and kept in touch with peopel in disasters.

They didn't depend on towers..

Where are they now? Did satelite and cell phone shut them all down?