Hurricane Florence launches stimulus plans for wireless service providers

The raid includes a menagerie of machines with animal monsters intended to help repair the communication network of the area affected by hurricanes. There are wheeled cells and wings, light truck cells, wheeled cell repeaters, trailer generators and spiders, and circuit networks to improve connectivity in places such as hotels. command centers and temporary shelters.

A drone deployment is also planned to assess the damage to the thousands of cell towers that cover the North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia region.

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, wireless service providers' response has grown in recent years, with more than 52% of households having only wireless phones.

"It's a massive operation where every cell site is revisited, checked … (and) made sure everything works properly and is prepared for it," said analyst Roger Entner, founder of Recon Analytics , a telecommunications research and consulting company. . "They are the second speakers essentially."

All leading wireless service providers – AT & T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon – are gearing up for Hurricane Florence, which is expected to hit the Carolina coast with hurricane winds by Thursday. Among their main missions: to ensure that cell towers remain operational.

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A cell site was flooded during Hurricane Matthew in 2016. Verizon used a drone to check if repairs were needed. (Photo: Verizon)

Cellular towers typically have on-site generators that allow sites to operate for three to five days if the area loses power. According to Entner, the winds should not exceed the range of 130 to 156 km / h in category 4, but the cell sites should remain intact.

"The problem will be when the cell sites run out of fuel, can they go to all the cell sites in time to refuel it," he said. "The faster the power increases, the fewer problems you have."

Company spokeswoman Karen Schulz said Verizon had organized tanker trucks and was ready to enter the area. The company has set up two Hurricane Florence emergency command centers: one in Charlotte, North Carolina, to respond to interventions in storm-affected coastal areas and another in southern Virginia.

"We certainly do not expect, with the evacuations, the roads are filling up and the time before the month is moving in. We want to make sure everything is in place," Schulz said. "We have hundreds of mobile assets that we have moved into the area, we are balancing and keeping some of those out of this storm zone so that they are not damaged and we can move them very quickly."

In anticipation of the storm, mobile phone companies are strengthening offices and buildings that house critical network junctions called switches. These windowless and unscripted buildings are built to withstand Category 5 winds and even bomb explosions, but they are once again getting record time to check batteries, generators and fuel reserves.

"We have a very handy game book," said Scott Mair, president of operations at AT & T Technology & Operations.

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The AT & T Flying COW (cell on wings) was deployed to Puerto Rico in 2017 after Hurricane Maria. Flying at 200 feet above the ground, it can provide wireless connectivity to customers in an area of ​​up to 40 square miles. (Photo: AT & T)

These drones were used for the first time in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria and were also used this year during wildfires in California, he added. "Some places are difficult to access, a drone works effectively in these situations," said Mair. "They are a key part of our toolkit."

Verizon deploys wireless emergency control centers after disasters to help first responders and residents. (Photo: Verizon)

Other mobile cell vehicles are being deployed to help first responders and hard-hit residents. "We have mobile communications centers that we can deploy in communities that have been affected so people have somewhere to go and recharge their phones and access the Internet," said Schulz.

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Consumers can also take steps to prepare:

• Plug emergency phone numbers that you may need on your mobile devices in advance.

• Have a family communication plan so everyone can connect and let others know they are safe.

• Make sure your devices are fully charged and that you have extra batteries and car chargers.

• Have resealable plastic bags to keep devices dry.

• Configure the Wi-Fi call before the storm. This could allow you to make calls if you have power but no cellular service.

• If you need to make a call after the storm, try to keep it short so first responders and others can also get through.

• Remember that engineers know about communication failures. Teams will be reinstated as quickly as possible, but floods and felled trees can be detrimental to this effort. Engineers will perform repairs as soon as possible.

• Use text messages whenever possible during and after a major weather event to reduce network congestion. "Texting consumes much less resources for wireless networks, and batteries are much more efficient," said Entner.