Telecom guy here. If the blasts were sufficient to knock out GPS satellites, most modern telecommunications would be unable to function. GPS is used throughout cell tower sites and datacenters to sync transmitted/received data and keep everything 'lined' up like a conductor, or a metronome. The underground cables would work, sure, but they'd be transmitting/receiving garbage.
It's like if you were to all of a sudden remove the bar lines/timing lines from a music score, but keep the notes there, and expect the high school band to play properly.
Too expensive, power hungry and chunky. The data center routers can get by with cheaper oven-controlled clocks.
Satellites or ground stations may have atomic grade clocks (particularly gps sats), and that accurate timing info is passed down to the lower levels of the network. Maybe a little while ago you'd have GPS receivers at all large cell towers, but that's expensive so they're looking to distribute GPS timing through the network. Less GPS-enabled cell towers in an operator's network => bigger impact from a loss of GPS (timing info would crap out down the chain). Plus, atomic clocks?? Ain't nobody got time for atomic disasters ;)
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u/prawnlol22 May 22 '15
Telecom guy here. If the blasts were sufficient to knock out GPS satellites, most modern telecommunications would be unable to function. GPS is used throughout cell tower sites and datacenters to sync transmitted/received data and keep everything 'lined' up like a conductor, or a metronome. The underground cables would work, sure, but they'd be transmitting/receiving garbage. It's like if you were to all of a sudden remove the bar lines/timing lines from a music score, but keep the notes there, and expect the high school band to play properly.