Cell Phones at Burning Man

Filed Under Burning Man, Events, Geek, Twitter on 2009-08-25, 14:17

Burning Man Iphone

While thousands are counting down the days until they arrive in Black Rock Desert for Burning Man this year, there’s already a number of people out there on the playa getting things ready….. and they’re calling and tweeting back to us looking for someone to bring the things they forgot. Yes, that’s right there is cell service on the playa this year. How do I know? I got a call from Rubin while he was sitting at the space reserved for our camp (Ardent Heavy Industries). In addition several others are tweeting up a storm: @SFSlim, @steve23, @Rubin110, @TKimball, @JosephPred, and more. And of course foursquare had to get in on the action and quickly added Black Rock City to their database so people could check in. As of this writing, SFSlim is the Mayor of The Man but we predict this to change once Steve23 hears wind of it.

The cell service appears to be limited to AT&T and Verizon, but from what we hear people are getting 5 bars inside Black Rock City. Apparently the service is mostly coming from a temporary tower that was installed on some leased land near Frog Pond, which is less than a mile from the trash fence that marks the border of Black Rock City. How are they doing it? According to @ChrisPetrell it’s a combination of solar/wind powered tower with a satellite uplink. It’s not official Burning Man cell coverage and the Burning Man Org has nothing to do with it, but DPW and other volunteers already on the playa are using it. In addition to this temporary tower, there are also permanent AT&T and Verizon towers south of Empire that people are reporting service from. And finally, there is a theme camp that is providing a GSM->VOIP gateway. I’m assuming this rumored theme camp is the same as the OpenBTS project I posted about last year.

But before you get your hopes up, know that the chance of this service making it through Burning Man without melting down is slim to none. Joseph Pred notes:

Important cell phone update: Temp site only supports 23 Verizon/CDMA users and no SMS. AT&T/GSM supports 35 users with SMS but limited EDGE.

This means you’ll have quite the battle with 40-50,000 other attendees if you need to make a call home. Rubin mentioned that he was already having trouble and the event is not due to start for almost a week. I think it’s still appropriate to tell your boss/significant other/etc that you are not contactable while out on the playa. Besides, do you really want to get that call about the firewall going down while you’re in the middle of 2pir surrounded by an actual wall of fire?

What do you guys think about cell phones on the playa? Good, bad, who cares?

original Man image from Dan Garcia

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Comments

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  • briancompton

    airplane mode.

  • Marino

    I understand I'm outnumbered. Have fun you all.
    What's depressing to me about all these comments about the need to be “isolated”, “cut off” etc is the brevity of the BM experience and it's lack of continuum with the outside world.
    The fact that BM exists in such an isolated bubble is a reminder of the failure of its wonderful participants to affect change in the world “outside” its borders.

    It's like; “I have one week of the year where I can be free so the rest of the year I can be a slave.”

    What happened to being free 365 days a year?
    LOL. Just trolling. Love you all. See you outside the fence.

  • petercrash

    So much for “Off the grid”….. the pop culture allure of tweeting (or any communication technology) at Burning Man should always lose out to the feeling of being free from the “real world.” However, with the growth of technology and the reach of wireless communications, this kind of stuff at Burning Man is inevitable. In which case, I'll turn off my phone and leave it in my glove box. Problem solved.

  • Moon

    evolution, i'm all for it, imagine what we can do with the help of technology, the people you don't have to miss, and what you can cocreate in the moment with it

  • moonigana

    this is ridiculous to gripe about something that can also bring a whole new co-creative experience, i can call my friends if i get lost or find someone when i don't know where their camped instead of missing them all week, i can let people know of some impromptu performance, its about evolution and technogy is part of it, every one sounds like old grampas complaining about the phone

  • John

    Great!!! What's the number for pizza delivery in Gerlach?

  • Steve

    Aaaaurgh!
    I had to be reachable, in case of family emergency. So I RENTED a SATELLITE PHONE.
    What's more, I had to rent it for a whole bunch of days more than I'll really need it, because I'll be in Reno for a few days before and after.

  • jeffsullivan

    At first glance phone conversations could insert too much “reality” into an unreal environment (participants may feel some loss of the freedom they've achieved), but on the practical side I haven't figured out how to connect with others at the event. The 4 mile round trip walk from the far side of the grid to Center Camp made quaint things like bulletin boards ridiculously impractical in 100+ degree heat. Texting capability would be really nice, and availability of Internet for backups would have saved the photos that I lost last year (I tried the existing alleged wi-fi connections last year and was completely shut out, only serving to completely waste my time trying to get to the Internet at all).

    In the bigger picture though, it's sad that some people are so small-minded that they can't envision possibilities for interaction outside of BM as a wildly positive thing. Instead of being an escape and insular prison from the evil outside world, let BM escape and infect that outside world in real time, injecting and infecting it with healthy doses of self-expression and freedom. Why not let burners interact through art that simultaneously interacts with people outside? Let the 50,000 onsite attendees spread the culture to 5M outside. A robust Verizon-to-Internet connection will make such advances possible.

    In another example, if Burning Man ever effectively takes on the theme “Focus on total global carbon emissions”, exposing the ridiculous fallacy that CO2 reductions in developed countires alone can slow global emissions growth (while corporations simply move jobs to, and hide their emissions growth in, China and India), a globally networked BM event could literally change the world, perhaps save humankind. Open your minds, save the planet (or at least yourself and your children). Set Burning Man loose.

  • lalagogo

    no way i want to be on my cell or available while on the playa.
    that said, it wouldn't hurt to be able to see my email on my iPhone.

  • Mars

    I think it's sick that people want to jam the cell coverage in order to impose their view on all Burners. Very dictatorial in spirit. That just gives a good chuckle to those with no outside commitments, and it harms those of us who do need to be accessible in some fashion to dependents etc. If I had Verizon or ATT, I'd be a lot less nervous about leaving a young child at home for a week. And less nervous equals more freedom to be myself and relax and unplug. Which I will not have. Why do YOU get to force that on others?

    That's simplistic to say just bring all your dependents to Kidsville — everybody cannot handle the tough environment — plus it's hard to feel comfortable with your family when lots of Burners don't even WANT kids on the playa at all.

    Instead, how about art projects and events that promote the value of turning off the phone unless really needed? How about an Unplug Parade with announcements like those at a theatre telling you to please turn it to vibrate so you do not let your phone disturb the event? How about an official sign that camps can choose (THEIR choice) to post at events saying no cell phone usage and no photos inside? It is certainly the right of an event host to say no photos in here, no tweets etc in here either.

  • notmyname

    Wouldn't we just be better off with microchips implanted in the back of our necks instead?

  • notmyname

    But that spreadsheet has to be submitted to head office by friday!

  • notmyname

    TWEET: I'm in the porta-potty right now. Bloody dark in here, where is my light?

  • notmyname

    Can I drive an art car and talk to my GF on the cell at the same time?

  • notmyname

    Remember the days of public sex acts, catapulting old televisions across the desert and bringin' the ol' shotty to the playa and blasting off a few rounds? Man, why can't we bring THAT back?

  • notmyname

    While we're on the topic, could the folks that run BM find it in their hearts to cap ticket sales at 35-40,000 maximum? In 2007, people were rolling in for the burn with F350s, massive campers, and no idea what BM was all about. The outer ring is the outer ring for a reason, not for overflow parking the night of the burn…

  • fmrbrnr72

    Burning Man? I thought that died, like, three years ago. Everybody's going to Bonnaroo and Coachella now, right?

  • moonrunner

    never been to the playa – an awesome idea, but like most maybe it is growing out of itself? maybe not. I personally think cell phones there would be a distraction. I would think the idea of BM IS TO CONNECT but not by electronic means. By meeting, talking, experiencing it/people/events in real time in the real world with the people WHO ARE THERE. unplug plyazens just for your own joy. happiest thoughts for a great burn for you all!

  • Stringbean

    Time on the playa?
    It could simply be called “now” or “playatime”
    miss events? geez you left the scheduled default world behind

    If you put your cell on airplane mode
    it neither receives or dials calls
    and you can still use your clock and alarm.

    And there's the off button.

  • Mars

    If my husband is on the phone asking for my help with our special needs son at home, and somebody “jams” me, I'll be “jamming” my fist into their head. Nuff said.

    You don't want cell phone service? Don't use it. You want to escape? Enjoy.

    Not ALL of us are there to escape our lives: some are trying to enhance and refuel our lives. You should live YOUR life by your philosophy. but you don't have the right to limit MY life being lived in accordance to MY philosophy.

    So much for radical self-expression. Only if it means saying and dressing what's popular to those around you, huh?

  • Mars

    You're not alone, Marino. This is the same debate that existed during the 1960's. Do we try to change the world, or do we tune out and drop out?

    I'm in total agreement with you. That being said, I'm not going to judge those who want to be untethered on the playa. They should feel free to leave THEIR cell phones at the Gate.

    I respect my fellow Burners enough to not invade their space by using the phone for anything other than an urgent matter and letting my son know mommy still exists and loves him and will return in a few days.

    When I do return home, it'll be to continue making life better for those around me and all those I can reach — not just for myself. And not for a limited one freaking week out of the year.

    Here's to the future end of wage/mind/soul slavery for EVERYONE. And ALL year.

  • Mars

    From the Burning Man Survival Guide:

    Q: What if friends or family at home need to reach me for an emergency?

    A: Unfortunately, given the nature of the event, finding a participant on the playa is usually quite challenging.

    (…)

    Q: What can prevent me from getting the message?

    A: Just a few of the variables that can get in the way: your camp relocates, or nobody's ever in camp when we come seek you out; your camp spot is obscured from view by other camps; the 20 foot inflatable duck deflates due to a leak; there are three camps with 20-foot inflatable ducks, and none of the neighbors know anyone named “Chris” because you have been introducing yourself all week as “Captain Underpants, Lord of the Duck People!” You get the picture.

    In other words, you're heading to the middle of the desert, and there is no guarantee that we'll be able to deliver a message in an emergency; it's important to weigh that before you leave home. If you are awaiting news, you can actively check in at Playa Info, and in truly dire circumstances, you can take the bus into Gerlach to use the pay phone there.

    Any further questions can be addressed to 911(at)burningman(dot)com.

  • http://eddie.com ekai

    I'm all for intra-playa cell coverage as long as the phones were made before 1950 and installed in phone booths,

  • ammre

    as someone who can not go to the burn (what's up being bedridden due to a spinal injury! at a burning man regional event no less!) I appriciate the texts, tweets and other burningman updates.

    This year especially because my sister is going and it's her first time. While it may seem like a walk in the park, and almost played out for you west coasters, to us east coasters it's still a rather difficult event to get to and manage. I kinda wanna know that's she's saf, ok, having fun, and have some little way of experiencing this with her.

  • iindecisive

    Then don't go. If you're nervous about your kid, then stay with your kid instead of doing both things half-ass, and ruining the experience for those around you by imposing your voice into my environment, how very dictatorial. All these people bitching about how it's gonna help with them being connected to their families are full of it. You are addicted to your cell-phone, period. Have some trust in the universe, isn't that what burning man is really about? If you're meant to find your friends on the playa, then you'll find them, if someone in your family needs you, hopefully, if you're connected, you'll sense it and get the fuck out of dodge. I am a cellphone destroyer, fear me. Then you will learn to love me.

  • Mars

    That is an extremely judgmental and self-centered reaction, iindecisive. HOW DARE anyone tell me not to go to Burning Man!!!!

    I belong there JUST as much as you. Perhaps more so — because I care about the rest of the world, not just my own fun like you do (“ruining the experience for those around you.”) I hardly see that attitude as part of building community.

    You don't know anything about me, so how would you know how often I use my cellphone? Leaping to conclusions and stereotyping people based on lack of information is at the root of every form of oppression on this planet.

    You called people who are trying to be as RESPONSIBLE AS POSSIBLE to their loved ones “full of it.” Are you kidding?! Appreciating that our families etc can reach us if they need us makes us “full of it”??? Then, what outlook do you suggest — that of running away to have our own experience without care for what may happen to those who cannot come with us?

    If we take your argument to its logical conclusion, then:

    1. Parents should not be Burners (unless their children are able to handle the desert for a week.)

    2. Teachers, doctors, therapists should not be Burners, because if a client needs that person's gifts for a moment on that one week out of the year, it proves that person is “addicted to cell phones.”

    3. True artists of the Burner persuasion should never have children or make other serious commitments. Because doing so eventually creates a problem for the Burners around us who are trying desperately to pretend they live on Planet Claire without any care for the rest of Earth.

    So you proclaim yourself “a cellphone destroyer” and that I should “fear” you. Listen up:

    I am a 47-yr old cancer surviving, incest surviving, domestic abuse surviving, rape surviving, stalker surviving, single mother, African-american woman and NOBODY threatens me without being warned to back off. I don't know who the hell you think you are, Child, but do not tell me to fear you. If I can fight through all the challenges I've already beaten, then I should have no trouble with somebody whose main gripe is that a phone call within earshot will ruin his buzz fantasy.

    That just proves what kind of person YOU are.

  • daveray

    Not being connected is one of the great things about burning man. OTOH my mom, who has a medical condition, can reach me in emergency. I can text someone who was supposed to camp with us but got lost. Think of how much resources it saves, how it improve our safety and of others. So I have to support having the connection. There needs to be a healthy discussion how to use a little discipline in not using the connection gratuitously and leaving the line available for people with real needs. Personally I'm not into twitter or any reason to beam out anything other than real life. I know if I didn't go to the burn I would be very curious how things were going, but I could live with waiting.

  • 14Mom18

    My son is going for the first time. I know he is in his 20s but a Mom is a Mom. I am happy there is a way for him to call once in awhile just to let me know he is OK. I understand you guys go there to get away from it all, but a Mom is a Mom.

  • loupiote

    do you think that this AT&T Billboard looking like “The Man” and prominently posted near a San Francisco freeway is just a coincidence?

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/loupiote/3868635103/

  • iindecisive

    1. Parents should not be Burners (unless their children are able to handle the desert for a week.)

    2. Teachers, doctors, therapists should not be Burners, because if a client needs that person's gifts for a moment on that one week out of the year, it proves that person is “addicted to cell phones.”

    3. True artists of the Burner persuasion should never have children or make other serious commitments. Because doing so eventually creates a problem for the Burners around us who are trying desperately to pretend they live on Planet Claire without any care for the rest of Earth.

    Exactly! Now you're getting it! Isn't this fun.

  • jennifersmall

    As a Burner who has terrible panic attacks, especially if I'm feeling isolated (i.e., airplanes, hiking, out of cell range) I am so happy there might be some cell coverage. The occasional SMS from a loved one on the outside can be all I need to be soothed out of the beginning of an attack, reminded of my enthusiastic support system, and to get out of my tent to boogie down in the dust :)

  • missfirestarter

    Let's not alter “the call of the playa” to “the cell phone call from the playa”.
    I was surprised to hear this news. I had not the means to make it out this year after four years of going and I had basically accepted that fact. However today – a fresh fall-ish day in New York – a feeling swept over me and I could sense the playa very strongly. I am now seriously forlorn about not being there. One of the best things about the burn is that you make plans to meet under the big flower at dusk, not by calling someone, and if you or the other person(s) doesn't make it, it's all cool. No one will be texting “Where r u??!!”

  • maureen_m

    Two comments:
    One- I hope someone has planned some phone booths for those cell-phone users to slip into (if they feel the need) when they use their cell phones so as not to disturb the techno-phobes.
    Two- How are people going to practice using their intuition and telepathy if they keep depending on cell-phones?!

  • jzimmyzz

    Ed is Cute!

  • erinwilcoxxxx

    please call me 509 995 5218 my bf is out here and im despreetly trying to reach him please help me

  • thinkaboutitlill

    I think its completely stupid.
    the main reason of burning man [in my opinion] is that
    you communicate with people who are around.

    WHY IN THE HELL would you want to call your friend sitting around doing nothing when all this excitment is happening right in front of you.
    I, for one, will not use my iphone to call random people. i will use it to take pictures and call someone in case of an emergency.

  • Stephen Kosciesza

    Whoa, whoa, whoa! It seems to me that most of the threatening is coming from you! Not to mention some border-line racism! What's the fact that you're an African-American woman got to do with anything? Because an African-American woman Has Spoken, everyone with a different opinion should just shut up?

    You remind me of those women in the Senate a few years ago (I hate to dignify them with the term “senators”) who surrounded the desk of a long-time senator who said something they disagreed with–getting all up in his face. Later, one of them proudly said, “I know how to street fight!”

    She didn't belong in the Senate; she belonged in jail. And perhaps you don't belong at Burning Man; nothing to do with cell phones, but you just don't understand community.

  • Stephen Kosciesza

    Well, as I said above, I needed to be reachable by my family because of an elderly relative. So before this news came out (I don't own a cell phone, anyway), I rented a satellite phone.

    The “discipline” came, first, from the price of using the telephone: second, the awkwardness of using it. Finally, there was the inconvenience of lugging around a rather heavy, clunky gadget–trying to keep the antenna pointing up–while I was spending virtually the entire week completely naked.

  • sarastanford

    I went to Burning Man for the first time, and have to say I liked having cell service. We got to call a friend who we had to drop off in Reno with a broken foot and check on him and say we missed him. I got to send a few text messages to our blog for the unfortunate people who could not attend. Other than that I left the phone in the rv, and I didnt' see anyone walking around the Playa talking on their phone.

    To be honest we left the 'default world' at the greeters station, we found Burning Man does that to you. Face it we are a connected world now, (note we are all posting on a blog right now), you could say it is Evolution!

  • burninggirl

    Did you never send your kid to camp?

  • burninggirl

    Okay, Kettle. You know nothing about community, because I know who you are. All you do is make people uncomfortable by stalking them. And you will never know what it is like to be a woman–even though you act like one (this is meant as an insult, because you are a pansy), and you will most certainly never know what it is like to be black–er, African-American. You would get your ass kicked in a street fight…period. And you still may not contact me. That restraining order is still valid. So get off your high horse and stop trying to tell women what they can and can't do with their bodies, esp. because you will never be a father.

  • burninggirl

    And you killed Stephanie, and you know it.

  • burninggirl

    You're a complete dork. If you can't be away from your father, why did you go? Why don't you get a cell phone like everyone else in the modern world?

  • Stephen Kosciesza

    Not sure what half of this has to do with anything that was said here.

    But again, I have to wonder if someone who judges a person by how they'd do in a street fight, someone who “argues” with threats, really belongs at Burning Man. Burning Man is a lot about getting along, about live and let live. I've been told that Burning Man is for the open minded, and now that I've been, I know it's truel The closed minded really don't belong there.

    BTW, for the record, and since it was brought up: I don't believe there are, or ever have been, any restraining orders against me. I'm fairly sure that if a competent authority ever issues one, they'd make it part of the process to inform me of the fact. And none ever has. So I conclude there are no such orders.

  • Stephen Kosciesza

    I've never known whether to laugh or cry over those people who claim (wrongly, but they'll never know it) to march to their own drumbeat–and then berate me for not doing things “like everyone else” in the world. Also, this last comment just shows that as usual, you can't be bothered to 1) read or listen properly before answering, 2) relate your arguments to the question, or even 3) make sense. So let me try to make it simple:
    1) I ordered the satellite phone before there was any suggestion that there MIGHT be cell phone coverage at Burning Man.
    2) I went to Burning Man with someone who had a cell phone. Once we got away from Gerlach, there was no signal. So it was useless.
    So my choosing not to own a cell phone is completely irrelevant.

  • Stephen Kosciesza

    I heard about those public sex acts, from one who allegedly did it. That would have been interesting. I really wish I could have gone sooner.

  • majoro4

    Wow! How many children does she have? When did being a black woman actually become a good thing, instead of belonging to a class of people who suck up unemployment while having illegitimate children in excess that they never intend to provide for.
    Also, when did “street fighting” become something other than moral decay and criminal behavior?

  • burninggirl

    Hmmm. Once again, you choose to spread falsities about me. I'm not the one with multiple restraining orders against me, kettle. If you bothered to read anything from the website, you would know that the phones hadn't worked in the past. No one needs people like you at Burning Man. Cry for yourself. You walk like a penguin. You waddle to your own drumbeat…and no one cares….

  • Stephen Kosciesza

    Again, for the record, there has never been a restraining order against me.

    And once again you've shown–even more blatantly than usual–that you don't bother to read what you're arguing against. I've heard about your vaunted communication skills from others.

  • Stephen Kosciesza

    Times have changed since we were young. A lot of parents nowadays wouldn't dream of letting their kids get on the school bus and go to school without their cell phones. Now, this thing that didn't even exist when we were in school is seen as indispensable.

    When we would go to camp, we'd live in tents (or MAYBE cabins), and sometimes cook over a fire. Probably at some, they'd set aside a time when kids were supposed to WRITE LETTERS home. In case of emergency there would be a camp headquarters where contact could be made if necessary.

    Now, they apparently all have themes: computer camp, camps to learn how to invest and get rich! And of course, they're all in instant communication. It wouldn't surprise me if they wouldn't allow a kid to show up without a cell phone.

    Personally, I think it's pathetic.

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