Cell Phone Network Reliability = National Security?

Here's a little puzzle for your Monday morning malaise: Why do we get to see regular reports of airline's on-time arrival performance while no one, ever, reports on cell phone network downtime?

MSNBC's Bob Sullivan has an interesting answer to that question: Cell phone network reliability is a matter of national security, according to the Federal Communications Commission. How does he know? He filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain the information. That request was rejected because "Release of the information could help terrorists plan attacks against the United States, and it would harm the companies involved."

Cough.

Saving us against terrorism? Protecting corporate interests? That's a shame because, as Sullivan rightfully notes, cell phone networks comprise one of consumers' biggest complaints to attorneys general.

The data is out there: Cell phone networks (and wired networks) are required to report any reasonably substantial outage to the Network Outage Reporting System. But that data has never been made public for the spurious reasons listed above. And actually, the FCC does Americans a disservice by withholding this information. In times of emergency, countless millions count on a cell phone to get them out of trouble. And while we largely accept some downtime as unavoidable, I'm sure we would all prefer to know how long to expect that downtime to be. An hour? A day? What's typical? And how does our carrier measure up? How many spare batteries should we expect to need?

We can continue to push the government to overturn its ridiculous position (and MSNBC is appealing the FOIA response), but we can also call on the carriers to do the right thing and start reporting uptime themselves. Any cellular carrier that wants to send me a list of its network outages, I'll happily write a report here on this blog, where your honesty will receive my heartfelt admiration.

Also read:
Viruses on Your Mobile Phone?
How to Pick a Wireless Carrier
Six Ways Cell Phones Can Hurt Your Business