How to Help Post-Earthquake Communications

This afternoon, a large earthquake hit the East Coast. As we reported, it is wreaking havoc on the cell networks from Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile and AT&T. No one cell company seems to be immune from the massive burst of cellphone traffic.

There are many ways for you to get around these outages, but we want to pass along some advice that will help ensure everyone can get in touch with their friends and family.

Put down the phone.

The problem with cell networks today isn’t that any towers are down or out of commission, it’s that they are overloaded with people calling everyone they know.

You can help ease this “mass calling” event by staying off your phone after you reach those you absolutely need to connect with.

After the initial calls, avoid using your cell phone for voice or heavy data sessions if you can. This will provide some breathing room for carriers.

If you can connect to a WiFi hotspot to keep in touch, please do so.

If not, please think of others who are still trying to connect to their friends and family.