TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Are There Any Portable Quasi Cell-Base Stations Yet?

Are There Any Portable Quasi Cell-Base Stations Yet?

Danny Burstein (dannyb@panix.com)
Thu, 14 Dec 2006 11:21:18 -0500

The recent death of James Kim, who had gotten lost with his family in
the snow covered and cold middle_of_nowhere Oregon reminded me of a
proposal from years ago.

In the debriefings after 11-Sept, a bunch of cellular techies
announced plans to come up with portable quasi-base stations which
could be rolled out and used to "ping" cellphones.

In a situation like the World Trade Center, this would have been used
for close-in searching -- that is, to let the emergency folk know there
was an active cellphone thirty or so feet under the rubble to the
right, helping them in the rescue and/or recovery.

In Mr. Kim's case, where his family was beyond range of any cellular
tower, the portable stations would have been running around in rescue
vehicles or aircraft, looking (initially) at a wider area.

I didn't see any mention of these in use, and haven't found any
indication that they've been built.

Anyone have any updates? Thanks.

_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dannyb@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]

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