FCC to revise emergency backup power rule for cell towers
By Darren Murph 
posted Dec 10th 2008 9:47AM
posted Dec 10th 2008 9:47AM
Even though the FCC could have simply overridden a White House decision to reject the backup power requirement, it's deciding to reel in its ego and revise things for the betterment of all involved. After taking a fair amount of flack for its emergency plan being too outlandish and impossible to afford / implement, the agency has stated that it will issue a new proposal "with the goal of adopting revised backup power rules that will ensure that reliable communications are available to public safety during, and in the aftermath of, natural disasters and other catastrophic events." Details beyond that are scant, but we suspect the whole "at least eight hours of backup power" could be changed to something smaller. Moral of the story? Don't ditch that Y2K preparedness kit just yet.[Via mocoNews]
Doesn't Verizon already have lots of emergency back-up equipement that they use. I know they have mobile cell towers on trucks and other stuff they use in case of a power emergency so I wanna know why the other companies can't do something similar. Most of the time the power is restored to my town in 2-4 hours. The FCC should set that as a goal for most area and then require more for tornadoe alley and other high risk areas. That would make it easier for the companies to swallow.
vzw has backup power on more towers than any other carrier. on the texas gulf coast 97% of towers have battery and or diesel backup.