ISP Information:
This stands for the number 10 raised to the power of 100 (10^100), or a one followed by 100 zeros.
ISP Glossary:
Googol - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37299-2003Sep19.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A37299-2003Sep19?language=printerwashingtonpost.comTraditional Phones Gain New RespectPower Failures Cut Cell SignalsBy Christopher Stern and Yuki NoguchiWashington Post Staff WritersSaturday, September 20, 2003; Page E01It wasn't until yesterday morning that Margaret L. Sullivan began tohave second thoughts about getting rid of her old plug-in-the-walltelephone and becoming completely dependent on her mobile phone at herFalls Church apartment.That was when she woke after the remnants of Hurricane Isabel hadpassed through the area and discovered her wireless Sprint PCS phonecould not pick up a signal.Cell phone towers need electricity and when the local power goes down,the towers switch to backup batteries and generators. But with so manytowers affected by the storm, mobile phone companies yesterday foundthemselves struggling to keep generators fueled and batteries charged.It was not just cell phone owners who had trouble. Families that hadbought newer cordless phones also had trouble getting dial tones afterthe power went out. So did businesses that had invested in fancyinternal networks.Traditional handsets, which plug into jacks in the wall, do not relyon the power company the same way that other household electricalgadgets do. They are powered by electricity that flows over thetelephone network. The phones work even if the power company'selectricity is cut off.Sprint spokesman Charles Fleckenstein said about 15 percent of thecompany's towers in North Carolina and Virginia were affected byHurricane Isabel and its aftermath. "We have lots of power outages,and we are trying to recover from that hurricane. We have lots ofsites that are down," Fleckenstein said.Sullivan, 32, said she had gotten rid of her traditional phone becauseshe liked the convenience of a mobile handset. But after this week'shurricane, "it makes you think, if it had been an emergency, I wouldnot have had access" to the telephone network, Sullivan said.For the past week, telephone companies had been warning customers tomake sure that they have a corded phone in the house in case of apower failure. Troy Turner, senior store manager of a downtownRadio Shack, said his shop recently experienced a surge in customerscoming in for corded phones. "It's something you have to have foremergency preparedness," Turner said.Verizon Wireless spokesman John Johnson said there also has been a runat retail stores on extra batteries and cell phone chargers that workoff car batteries."We have been advising customers to make sure batteries are fullycharged and to have vehicle adapters standing by," Johnson said.Depending on the model, some cell phones can stay powered for severaldays if they are in standby mode. Cell-phone batteries generally onlylast for a few hours when they are in steady use.Verizon Communications Inc., the main local phone provider in themid-Atlantic region, reported few phone service failures. In someareas, phone service was knocked out by a downed tree or a piece ofequipment failed because of water damage, said Eric Rabe, a Verizonspokesman.There could be more damage in flooded areas, but "a lot of theseplaces were evacuated and so we won't know until we cango back in," Rabe said.Verizon said it was able to maintain service for the vast majority ofits customers by using its own source of emergency power in 200regional central offices. In Virginia, 116 central offices usedVerizon's bus-sized generators to power the network, while another 25central offices in Maryland, and seven in Washington were ongenerators.Copyright 2003 The Washington Post Company*** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use ofwhich has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ThisInternet discussion group is making it available without profit to groupmembers who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the includedinformation in their efforts to advance the understandin
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