Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Japanese Earthquakes and 24-hour Battery Backup


In 2011, following the Great East Japan Earthquake, Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications convened a study group composed of the major mobile providers and decided to fortify battery backup for 2,000 locations across the country. Battery backup time was increased to 24 hours for these locations, which are mainly city halls and prefecture headquarters.

The most recent large earthquake (magnitude 7.0) in Japan happened 1 kilometer west-southwest of Kumamoto City. The screenshot below is from Softbank Mobile's site. The Kumamoto City Hall and Prefecture office locations are highlighted in red.



(image: US Geological Survey)

Those locations are listed on each provider's site. Here is an example (in Japanese).


Field Tesing 29% Complete


Beautiful California

California. It's the last week of April -- still snowing in the mountains, but dirt-dry in Owens Lake, off Highway 395 in the Eastern Sierra. At the other end of the state, the rocky shore of the north coast near the border of Oregon. Finally, steel sculptures northeast of Lassen National Park near Burney.



Friday, April 22, 2016

First Week of Mobile Testing

Our drivers are finishing up the first week of testing today (15% complete). Here are some photos.




Tuesday, April 19, 2016

CalSPEED Still Going Strong!



CalSPEED, our crowdsourcing app, continues to provide a steady stream of data for the California Broadband Interactive Map. Only halfway through April, we have over 140 CalSPEED tests, which is one par with our quarterly average to date.

Spring 2016 Field Testing Has Started

photo by Steven Crews