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Comment by a1studmuffin | Hacker News Reader

Don't most smartphones have emergency broadcasts built-in these days? Who doesn't have their phone on them when they're driving in a car?

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If I remember, it plays some kind of tone, and pops the alert up in text.

> Who doesn't have their phone on them when they're driving in a car?

Who's checking their texts when they're driving a car? Thankfully, that's a ticketable offense in my area now.

Ticketable offense probably most of the places. Still something that happens all the effin time.

The obvious flaws in that argument are battery life for one, and that whenever any major event happens, like New Years Eve, the mobile network slows to a halt. In a national emergency, a smartphone isn't going to last long enough to serve you, especially in a climate where winter temperatures are routinely as low as -25 centigrade and battery life is all the worse for it.

Word! Norwegian living in Oslo here, my iPhone 6 can shut down around 40-50% battery around -5 centigrade if I keep it out for long enough that it cools down (5 mins should do it). Now I always try to keep it warm in my hands and stick it back in my pocket asap, and I always keep it the pocket on my thigh, if I keep it in a pocket without close body contact it cools down as if it was outside.. I've heard something about this being caused by the aluminium covering the back of the phone and it accelerating the transfer of heat. Can't confirm it though, my last phone was an iPhone 4 which was equally terrible in the same environment.

> Who doesn't have their phone on them when they're driving in a car?

Err... me? Don't assume the way you do things is the way everyone does things.

Anyone who doesn't own a mobile/cell phone?

A quickly vanishing segment of people. Probably not worth worrying about.

Yeah, soon enough it will be gone, but radio is probably more robust in large scale emergency situations (insert catastrophe of your choice).

Personally, a cellphone hasn't become a routine item for me. I don't really carry one at the ready, though I have a few without plans. When necessary I pay for a month and charge one up.

Probably less people than the number of people that have the radio turned off anyway, so that could be considered "good enough"

Question I have is how resilient is the cell network in the event of a large-scale power outage? Can the antennae towers still operate without the power grid?

They have batteries, but I don't think they last very long.

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