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Quake Generates Massive East Coast Cell Phone Outage

Wednesday, 24 August, 2011 5:18

Cell service along the East Coast was spotty for about a half hour following
a Virginia-based earthquake that was felt as far away as New England.
There were no reports of downed cell towers or wires, but mobile providers
said the fact that millions of people tried to make cell phone calls at the same
time overwhelmed cellular relay stations.
Verizon Wireless reported network congestion for some customers in the
Eastern U.S. for about 20 minutes following the earthquake, which hit just
before 2 p.m. ET. The quake measured at 5.9 on the Richter scale.
"We are seeing no reports of damage to our wireless network," said Verizon
(VZ, Fortune 500) spokesman Jeff Nelson. "Everything returned to normal
quickly once the tremors ended. We'll continue to monitor the network."