I assume cell phone towers have generators, and battery backup for when the generators run out of gas.Does anybody know if there is a standard on how long they have to be able to provide power for? While power was out for my relatives in Florida this morning and Friends in Charleston, SC early afternoon, I got a few texts saying they were safe and wet(SC), now texts are returned unsent, and calls go right to voicemail. I imagine no internet ,no power, No airconditioning, no smartphone data, has a whole bunch of people In SE US contemplating a lot of things always taken for granted, well Those who still have livable structures to reside within.

even if the cell site can keep going the rest of the infrastructure has to keep going too. the phone system and internet connection it ties into could be out of power damaged or under water.

January 17, 1994Was thrown out of bed by the Northridge, earthquake. Ran down to the business. Checked for gas leaks, spilled batteries - all OK. Dialed my mother who lived in Reno, apologized for waking her up. The call went through instantly. Told her telephone service was bound to go down and don't worry.An hour later the land line was dead. No call completion. Stayed that way for seven hours.So whatever you may surmise abut what's happening to cell service in FL , it is probably protection against overloading.

During emergencies, critical infrastructure services are able to commandeer cell phone services. This is done with a special phone # and code that is entered. Depending on the code, the priority can change. For example, the electric company may have one code, the fire department another, with the fire department's code being a higher priority. When all cell phone channels are in use, the code bumps a low priority user to free up the resource for the code holder.

Thanks. My family is OK, but I imagine they are not used to being without power or phone service. I was more wondering about the tellycom towers and if there are standards for how long they have to be able to run when the grid goes down. We talk about telecom batteries on this forum a bit, I was just wondering how long major towers can rely on battery power alone and the same about generators and if anybody here was familiar with the size of their battery banks and how long they can power a cell phone tower.

No standard but a lot of conformity. Not all cell sites have generators. There are too many variables to discuss but one must consider such things as a huge increase in traffic can cause batteries to deplete quicker. Some sites may share generators with other types of communication gear as well. With the loss of commercial power I suspect a lot of cell towers will be down soon. There may be a few cell towers down too.

Telecom towers and their power | Good Sam Community

wa8yxm
Explorer III
Sep 12, 2017
landyacht318 wrote:
I assume cell phone towers have generators, and battery backup for when the generators run out of gas.

Bad assumption.. NOT all towers are so equipped.

And no standards that I am aware of though each company may have a policy for those towers so equipped.

In the 1970's back before Cell Phones became popular.. We had a major power fail when a generator at Niagra failed and took out half the USA and a good part of Canada.. The power companies crossed their corporate hearts and told us they would install safety gear to make sure that never happened again.. As you may recall. IN the 2000s (abou 4 or 5) it happened again. Only this time it was a plant in Ohio (Michigan originally got blamed but it was Ohio). Turns out the power companies LIED, So they have once again promised.

But in the latter fail many cell towers went down due to lack of back up power as well. We had back up power where I worked, but that was only because I had my own personal back up.
MEXICOWANDERER
Explorer
Sep 12, 2017
To keep my Kubota operational in tropical storm conditions was a real challenge. The structure air inlet is a concrete block baffle with a DeVries 375 watt (1/2 hp) squirrel cage fan. The radiator push fan also exits into a baffle. The 375 watt fan is so strong when it starts it makes the ears pop. With the entrance door closed. It pushes a noticeable amount of air out of the radiator port. I seriously doubt they would be so elaborate with a MW site power plant. Even partially loaded the Kubota eats in excess of 12 gallons of fuel per 24 hours. Not even a whisper of the power requirements of a MW site.
MEXICOWANDERER
Explorer
Sep 12, 2017
Life At A Tower Is Not Easy
TurnThePage
Explorer
Sep 12, 2017
The solar panels on my trailer came from a fire damaged remote cell tower. They seem to have pretty good backup systems, at least here in the northwest.
vermilye
Explorer
Sep 12, 2017
I was at the top of Steens Mountain (southwest Oregon) yesterday & saw the propane tank farm used by an AT&T tower. No idea how long it would last, but they sure had lots of tanks! (by the way, I do wonder how they get the tanks filled - very steep rocky road to the tanks that probably needs a 4 wheel drive to get there, although with the steel framework around the tanks, maybe they air lift the entire set of tanks. Ever see a 4 wheel drive propane delivery truck?
NinerBikes
Explorer
Sep 12, 2017
Well, a General ham radio license is a good option, if all involved have one, know how to use it, and have hf radios. Morse Code CW is good to know during such times.
MEXICOWANDERER
Explorer
Sep 12, 2017
Tanks are dropped by helicopter.
Ski_Pro_3
Explorer
Sep 12, 2017
The steel framework is for snow load. Water in snow is heavy and could damage the pipe work. The steel forms a 'bridge'.
mbopp
Explorer
Sep 12, 2017
Working for a telco, I can state that not all cell towers have backup.
Side note - we had a localized power outage so I had my house running on my Honda 2000 generator. I know for a fact the Central Office my land line is out of has both generator and battery backup. So my dsl worked and we were watching Netflix, drinking wine, and reading the neighborhood FB page about how everybody was burning their cellular data minutes since the cable tv & internet were out.
Sam_Spade
Explorer
Sep 12, 2017
vermilye wrote:
I was at the top of Steens Mountain (southwest Oregon) yesterday & saw the propane tank farm used by an AT&T tower.

That might be a cell tower.....but probably not.
More likely it is a microwave tower.