When the East Coast earthquake hit, the phone network was not my friend and the authorities were to say the least, confused. They evacuated the buildings in Philadelphia where I was, but short of that, information was spotty. The fireman and police moved around a lot, but could not find a way to be effective.

That was my experience in Philadelphia and I gather it was similar in most cities. The good news is that little damage was done. To me, it felt like two footballs players were trying to break my shocks on my car. My wife and daughter did not feel it as they were in a government across from where I was idling. 

I found myself having to move for a vehicle with a siren and it took me about an hour to get back to where I had been a block earlier.

Philly had a long fight a few years back about the deployment of a municipal WiFi (News - Alert) network. Candidly, I did not have the presence of mind to look for it. However, I was thinking about last week’s article about BART and how my phone service was useless for a while and how sensors would be contributing to the demand.

I did have a lot of thoughts about M2M solutions I would have liked to have seen. By my house in New Jersey I have two massive Amber Alert signs. Additionally the local advertisers have become digital sign mavens.   It struck me I needed a smaller version of these things all over Philadelphia. 

Some digital kiosks with Amber Alert like quality (perhaps the authorities could implement with the neighborhood development companies). Where I could have discovered what streets they were stopping and what streets were moving.

Obviously, outside of emergencies these signs could be used for advertising. They could also be access points for WiFi or White Space services.

While they were at it, they could also be used to share some local news from Comcast (News - Alert) (the building dwarfs the rest of philly). 

My friend Joel Brick of Sioux Valley Wireless would suggest supporting a hybrid private spectrum deployment with these signs perhaps as simple repeaters for all those municipal alarm systems.

As I watched people playing phone roulette trying to get access, I could see the benefit of a separately segmented spectrum.

David Williams CTO of Stoke (News - Alert) Networks would tell me that I could have also benefited from the use of EPDG in the WiFi network to connect to my primary carrier for all my services.

At the end of the day, I knew I wanted more than what I had, even if demand returned to normal two hours later.

Want to learn more about M2M technologies? Then be sure to check out the M2M Evolution conference, collocated with TMC’s (News - Alert) ITEXPO West 2011, taking place Sept. 13-15, 2011, in Austin, Texas. The M2M Evolution Conference is for those industry professionals interested in capitalizing on a rapidly growing segment of the telecom industry. The M2M Evolution Conference embraces the any-to-any strategy of the Internet today. Co-sponsored by TMC Partner Crossfire Media, it showcases the solutions, and examines the data strategies and technological requirements that enterprises and carriers need to capitalize on a market segment that is estimated to grow to $300 Billion in the year ahead. To register, click here.