Hurricane Irene Knocked Out Thousands of Cell Towers
Wireless cell sites in Vermont, Connecticut and Rhode Island were particularly hard hit when Hurricane Irene swept up the East Coast over the weekend, according to numbers released by the FCC late Monday. It said 210,700 wireline customers didn’t have service by its latest count. Two TV stations and 10 radio stations remained down and a million cable customers had no service. But first responder communications didn’t take the same huge hit they did six years ago as a result of Hurricane Katrina, the FCC said.
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The FCC said 6,500 cell sites remained down. That included 44 percent of the sites in the affected parts of Vermont, as well as 35 percent of affected counties in Connecticut, 31 percent in Rhode Island and 25 percent in Virginia. In North Carolina, the portion of cell sites out of service has declined from 14 percent to 11 percent in affected parts of the state. In contrast, Katrina knocked out about 1,000 cell sites, though in a more concentrated geographic area.
It’s important to put the numbers in context, said CTIA Assistant Vice President Brian Josef. “We note that a total of over 46,000 cell sites serve the more than 200 counties most severely impacted by the storm,” he said. “Thus, over 85 percent of the cell sites in these counties are still operational, despite heavy damage to commercial power and other services supporting these sites."
The commission was on full alert over the weekend as the storm approached and then hit the East Coast, with Chairman Julius Genachowski doing media conference calls Saturday and Sunday afternoons. “We are pleased that current reports indicate no 911 center is without service, and we have received no reports of public safety communications outages,” Genachowski said Monday. “The FCC remains on active watch around-the-clock to assess and respond to outages where necessary. We currently have four Roll Call teams deployed to conduct post-event scans of the radio signal environment. … We are working to ensure continuation of service, and that service is restored quickly where needed.”
Genachowski also said he spoke with the CEOs of major wireline, wireless and cable companies. He spoke with Verizon’s Lowell McAdam, AT&T’s Randall Stephenson and Sprint Nextel’s Dan Hesse, as well as Comcast’s Brian Roberts, Time Warner Cable’s Glenn Britt and Cox Communications’ Pat Esser, we've learned. Genachowski also spoke with Cablevision Chief Operating Officer Tom Rutledge.
The effect on communications systems appeared to be less devastating on most levels than that of Katrina, a Category 3 hurricane that hit the Gulf Coast in August 2005, causing massive damage to communications infrastructure throughout the region. The following year, then-FCC Chairman Kevin Martin appointed an independent panel to investigate, which handed down a report in June 2006 (CD June 20/06 Special Report). Among the conclusions was the first responder communications breakdowns frustrated emergency response and communications networks were less prepared than electricity networks.
Wireless service in New York is spotty or degraded in parts of the state following Irene, due to commercial power loss and other problems, said a New York Public Service Commission spokeswoman. Access to some cell sites is still restricted due to “flooding and other unsafe conditions,” she said. There were wireline service outages affecting around 8,000 customers in five counties, she said. But there’s no impact on Manhattan residential wireline customers, she said. Some large business customers were affected but restoration was expected to have occurred Monday night, she said. However, cable companies’ video, voice and data services reported “significant outages … throughout Nassau and Suffolk Counties on Long Island, the [New York City] boroughs, and the counties in the Hudson Valley,” mainly due to commercial power loss, she said.
Fewer than 10,000 connections were out in Vermont over the weekend, said John Burke, a member of the Vermont Public Service Board. “We've been pretty lucky.” There was no dramatic wireline service outage, and wireless services held up relatively well, he said. Some staff at the Public Service Board worked from home Monday and expected to return to the office Tuesday, he said. In Virginia, Verizon said there were only limited pockets of service disruptions, a State Corporation Commission spokesman said. The Massachusetts Department of Telecom and Cable didn’t have an estimate of lost phone or cable service, a spokesman said. Many customers’ phone service is through cable, and the agency is unable to differentiate between a power outage and a phone service outage, he said. Some 500,000 people in the state were without power, he said.
AT&T is seeing some impact from loss of power and from equipment damage, a spokesman said. Technicians were assessing damage and starting to restore service, he said. Many of Verizon Wireless’ cell sites in communities that have lost commercial power were still serving customers with backup emergency batteries and generators, a spokesman said. As commercial power is restored, Verizon is returning more cell sites to normal operations, he said.
Cablevision, Comcast and Time Warner Cable said many customers were without power, and so unable to access those companies’ services. Subscribers can lose access to broadband, VoIP and video service when their power goes out, even if their operator is sending the signals to homes. Although Cablevision had some line drops -- where lines fall and cut off service -- power was the main issue for its subscribers, a spokesman said. As utilities in the New York City area and in North Carolina are again sending power to Time Warner Cable subscribers’ homes, about 95 percent of them can get all the company’s products, a spokesman said.
Cablevision had no problems at its own facilities, such as head ends, due to flooding from Irene, said a spokesman for the company, with about 3 million subscribers in the New York area. “Cablevision is experiencing widespread service interruptions, primarily related to the loss of power,” the company said. “Cablevision crews are in the field and we will be working around the clock to make necessary repairs, in close coordination with local utilities. Generally, as electricity is returned to an area, customers will be able to access Cablevision service."
Comcast was able to minimize problems caused by the storm and respond quickly during and after the hurricane because of steps it took to prepare last week, a spokeswoman said. The company didn’t disclose any specific information about how many customers or systems suffered service losses. “At this time it appears the vast majority of the issues are directly related to commercial power outages,” and for most people, service should be restored as power comes back on in their homes, she said. “However, given the severity of the winds and rain … we are also seeing some more extensive damage caused by fallen trees, poles and more that will take longer to repair.”
Time Warner Cable has a few “small pockets” of damage to its facilities, mainly hubs in rural areas, its spokesman said. There have been “very few line drops,” he said. “Of the pockets that are left, it’s more like water damage to infrastructure, as opposed to line drops.” Technicians in the New York area and in North Carolina, where the company is the largest cable operator, are working around the clock to fix remaining problems, and some crews were imported from other areas on the East Coast to help, he said. “The results were encouraging for us. For the most part, the service held up pretty well, considering the amount of exposure related to Irene.” Time Warner Cable’s East region has about 6 million customers.