BellSouth Loses 1.75 Million Lines to Katrina; Carriers Begin Recovery

Wireless carriers all along the Gulf Coast said service showed signs of recovery Tues. and early Wed., but significant portions of networks remain down, they said. Wireless service disruptions were worst in the vicinities of New Orleans and Biloxi, Miss., cities Katrina hit hardest. Carriers declined to guess when repairs might begin in those areas. BellSouth and wireless carriers said flooding such as in New Orleans remains the single greatest obstacle to restoration. Carriers have begun restoration work in areas relatively less harmed by Katrina. These include Baton Rouge, La., Mobile, Ala. and Pensacola, Fla. Carriers agreed recovery will occur first in areas less severely affected, and where floods have receded.

Wireless carriers Wed. still couldn’t estimate how many customers were affected by cellphone outages, but all said they are moving as fast as possible to get their networks back up. Verizon Wireless said it has trucked in portable cell sites with their own power supplies to areas where towers are beyond immediate repair, and portable generators to restore cell sites needing only electricity. Verizon will deploy mobile customer service centers to repair and recharge cellphones until retail stores reopen. Cingular said it’s begun deploying 500 generators and fueling crews to keep its network powered, plus 100 recovery teams to repair and rebuild damaged network facilities. To extend capacity, customers should communicate by text message when possible, since text uses fewer network resources than voice, carriers urged.

Cingular has “spotty coverage” in the affected areas, a spokesman said, with some customers still able to make and receive calls but “at significantly reduced levels.” Most of Cingular’s Ala. network disruptions are in the Mobile area. Disruptions in Miss. are mainly in Jackson, Biloxi, Pascagoula, Bay St. Louis, Hattiesburg, Gulfport and Brookhaven. “We've seen a lot of disruptions there,” the spokesman said: “A significant amount of the cell sites have been impacted.” Network congestion is also a problem.

As expected, the network in New Orleans was damaged most, the Cingular spokesman said. He said the company is maximizing power through generators at every active cell site, located mainly on rooftops. To stay on, generators need to be refueled. “We have hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel available,” the spokesman said, adding the company has a recovery plan in place, based on last year’s hurricane experience in Fla., and is ready to implement it.

Verizon Wireless reported Wed. its service improved in Baton Rouge, Pensacola, Mobile and surrounding areas where technicians are now able to move in. But it said “efforts to restore service to New Orleans and the surrounding area continue to be hampered by widespread flooding.” Mobile cell sites are standing by at Verizon Wireless’ area facilities, “ready to be deployed to the hardest hit areas when they become accessible,” the carrier said.

Sprint Nextel said its wireless and wireline services into and out of the area have been affected. Wireless sites operating on battery backup “will have to await deployed assets of generators and personnel to recharge batteries in order to turn the site back on,” the carrier said: “Safety issues make it more difficult to get to some sites to effect repairs.” Sprint Nextel also said its long-distance switch, located below sea level, was flooded and had to be powered down, disrupting long- distance calls into and out of the area.

Verizon Wireless and others are encouraging customers to use text messaging service, which needs less bandwidth than voice calls and has a higher chance of getting through. “Customers who evacuated the area may be able to place calls but not receive calls at this time,” the firm said: “Mobile-to-mobile calling may also be available to some customers.”

To help hurricane victims, wireless companies rushed to offer free service in the affected areas. For example, Cingular set up free emergency calling stations at its open company-owned retail stores throughout Ala., Miss. and La. It also set up a free mobile calling station at the Cajundome in Lafayette, where thousands of evacuees took refuge. Verizon Wireless stores in the region are offering free local and long-distance calls, battery charging and technical support to anyone in need. The company also said it plans to deploy wireless emergency communications centers (WECC) to high-capacity shelters in Baton Rouge and Houston to provide wireless communication for storm evacuees. T-Mobile is offering free Wi-Fi service throughout the 3 affected states.

AT&T Offering Service

AT&T is in fairly good shape after the storm, spokesman Jim Byrnes said. There’s been little impact on IP, frame relay and ATM networks used by businesses, he said. AT&T’s high-capacity networks weren’t in the direct path of the storm, although a lot of its equipment is running on generators and battery power, Byrnes said. Batteries and generators usually are used in unmanned facilities, with batteries kicking in first until generators start. As fuel has run down in the generators, AT&T technicians have been able to refuel, he said.

AT&T faced one major outage when a fiber “regeneration hut” near New Orleans went out. The equipment “regenerates” the light pulses used by fiber cable. Repair crews couldn’t get near the facility so traffic has been shunted around it, Byrnes said. To do that, crews were out with backhoes and chain saws, laying new fiber to another location, he said. As far as switched long distance service used by consumers are concerned, “you can see by the devastation that our ability to complete calls to local telephone facilities is limited,” Byrnes said. As calling paths clear up, priority will be given to people calling out of the stricken areas, he said.

Meanwhile, the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology issued a notice on procedures carriers are to follow when providing post-Katrina emergency communications. They need “special temporary authority,” obtained by submitting “an informal letter or email or, if necessary, by telephone.” Requests can be filed electronically via the Experimental License Filing System, the notice said: “These requests will be handled as expeditiously as possible.” Contacts are douglas.young@fcc.gov and anthony.serafini@fcc.gov.

Other hurricane-related developments: (1) The FCC extended the regulatory fee payment deadline for those affected by Katrina in La., Miss. and Ala. to Sept. 28 from Sept. 7. “For all others, i.e. those not affected by the hurricane, the previous announced window remains in effect.” (2) The National Telecom Co-op Assn. (NTCA) cancelled its Finance and Accounting Conference set Sept. 21-23 in New Orleans. NTCA said on its website it considered holding the conference later in the year in a different location or keeping the current dates but moving the event elsewhere. Neither option worked, the association said. “Full refunds will be issued to all registrants soon,” the group said. A spokeswoman said the cost to NTCA isn’t significant, since the hotel said it won’t charge a cancellation penalty. “I'm sure in terms of time and planning we are losing a little money but we consider the loss insignificant considering what the people in New Orleans are facing,” she said.

(3) The 5th U.S. Appeals Court, New Orleans, is providing emergency information on the website used by the U.S. Dist. Court, Houston. Typing in the 5th Circuit’s web address brings up the Houston site with a button to click for 5th Circuit information. The appeals court information is basic: “Do not send any filings or documents to New Orleans at this time.” The court also tells attorneys that “all filing deadlines on or after August 24 through September 9 are automatically extended until September 12, subject to further extension.” If there are “true emergency matters” such as “death penalty cases with execution dates or deportation matters with an imminent and confirmed deportation date,” documents can be faxed or mailed to the Houston court.