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4 ways to get phone service the next time a hurricane Sandy calls

In the aftermath of a disaster such as superstorm Sandy, two-way communication is essential. Here are four ways to better prepare our phones and other devices for the next disaster:

2. Let the FCC do its job

To its credit, the Federal Communications Commission has proposed some standards that would require telecom operators to maintain a minimum amount of backup power in the event of disasters – just as the old landline telephone network of Ma Bell days had backup power at local exchange stations and provided auxiliary power through the phone line.

The mobile phone operators have challenged the FCC's ability to do this in court, claiming that they have a self-interest to keep their networks operational, and do not need the FCC to tell them what to do. After Sandy, it should be obvious to all that they are incorrect.

All telecom operators should be required to put in place a minimum amount of backup power before storms in order to ensure a minimum level of service. If members of the public are warned and asked to buy batteries and stock up on supplies in the days before a storm, shouldn't the industry have to do the same?

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

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