Matt=Carpenter%LAB%CON@nursing.con.ohio-state.edu (07/21/90)
I can only speak for the company I interned at a year ago, Cellular Communications, Inc. (Cellular One, serving Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland) but almost all of our current cell sites had provisions for backup power. Specifically, the "standard" sites had a battery rack AND a backup diesel generator. Unfortunately, I was not involved in the configuration, so I cannot provide specifications, but I would say the site could remain up under most power failures. Interesting to note, that power was not as big of a problem as were the microwave links. Being the alternate cellular provider in the service areas, we interconnected the cell sites using 2 GHz T1's. A map would look similar to a tree branching out; a particular cell site close to the CO would receive T1's from other sites and feed it to the switch. If anything should disrupt this particular site's communications, it would effectively sever communications of other sites with the CO. Alternate routes were not planned for (especially since we had our hands full maintaining growth). During one nasty thunderstorm, the weather and rain was so dense we lost communication with one of the cell sites that acted as the hub. Half of Columbus was without service for over an hour! Matt Carpenter carpenterm@nursing.con.ohio-state.edu