Telcos, Wireless Mobilizing for Hurricane Rita

“We'll be prepared to move,” said an SBC spokesman. The company had plans to reroute communications traffic if needed, he said. Verizon had emergency backup centers in place and an “aggressive” program to update employees on the storm, the firm said. Verizon also had letters from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) authorizing employees to enter storm-struck areas. “We're working with state and local agencies on this as well,” said Michael Hickey, Verizon vp-govt affairs, national security policy.

Post-Katrina credentialing drew fire in a Senate Commerce Committee hearing Thurs. as a bureaucratic failing that kept repairs from being completed speedily. Commerce Committee Chmn. Stevens (R-Alaska) said the FCC should get authority to handle those matters (CD Sept 23 p1), an issue he'll pursue with Senate leadership. Besides credentialing, the committee is scrutinizing federal and business responses to Katrina. FCC Chmn. Martin said it’s important to see if the telecom industry used “best practices” in dealing with the storm, or “additional requirements” are needed.

Because of continued uncertainty over Rita’s strength and exact path, none of the companies would estimate how many customers might be affected by the storm. SBC said it positioned 1,200 backup generators and several hundred maintenance employees at key locations around north Tex. on Thurs. and Fri., ready to move in once Rita had finished with the Gulf Coast communities. It also rerouted traffic away from threatened network segments and reinforced critical facilities. SBC was monitoring the storm from an emergency response center in Dallas, and advised some 2,000 employees living in the storm’s projected path to evacuate. A spokesman said SBC had planned for this situation and set up channels to coordinate everything from the local to the state levels: “We're hoping for the best, but we've prepared for the worst.” SBC said a major portion of the lines in the area targeted by Rita have been placed underground in recent years and the remaining aerial plant has been reinforced to withstand high winds. SBC said its first priority after Rita passes will be to restore phone service to hospitals, emergency rescue, police and fire departments., and disaster management agencies using existing or alternative communications systems.

Verizon said it installed special storm doors and sandbag walls to protect critical network facilities in low-lying areas, and has prepositioned equipment and repair crews. Verizon said it won’t start bringing in workers from other states until after Rita passes and it can assess the damage. Like SBC, its first priority will be restoring service to emergency-service and disaster- management entities. BellSouth in La. said it had secured vulnerable network facilities in Rita’s path through southwestern La., topped off all generator fuel tanks, and had personnel standing by in critical network centers to cope with storm damage as it happens. A spokesman noted BellSouth has gone through 22 hurricanes since 1992. The energy utilities in Rita’s path said they also had completed all possible preparations and now simply had to wait for the storm to blow itself out.

FCC Prepares for Hurricane Rita

As during the last hurricane, the FCC planned to remain open over the weekend to provide emergency services to telecom and media companies hit by Hurricane Rita. The agency said it would be available to provide emergency authorizations or to talk with companies about recovery efforts.

Agency staff members spent Fri. phoning storm-zone PSAPs to see if they had contingency plans such as rerouting 911 calls and ask if they need any FCC help. “We want to be sure we're both on the same page,” an FCC source said.

Wireless Industry Applying Katrina Lessons to Rita

The wireless industry last week used lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina to prepare for Hurricane Rita’s weekend arrival, sources said. Besides COWs (cell sites on wheels), COLTs (Cell sites On Light Trucks), generators and other standard storm preparations, carriers added precautions “in light of just having gone through this exercise in New Orleans,” a CTIA spokesman said.

The most significant are extended trunking precautions, the CTIA spokesman said. Katrina’s worst collateral impact on wireless carriers was loss of connectivity to landline switching offices that left them unable to route traffic, he said. By picking offices likeliest to be hit and preemptively devising rerouting plans, the industry hopes it has enabled seamless redirection of traffic to alternative switches. A like strategy is in place for local PSAPs, he said.

“Diligent planning pays dividends and saves lives,” said T-Mobile Senior Vp-Engineering Operations Neville Ray: “We prepare extremely hard locally and nationally throughout the year to respond to significant events.” T- Mobile said it moved microwave equipment into the Tex. and La. Gulf Coast region to facilitate data communication from cell sites to T-Mobile’s network switches, as backup, if T1 fixed line service fails. To guard its core network, the carrier fortified network switch operations serving the Houston market and continued to strengthen its switch in New Orleans, which stayed up through Hurricane Katrina.

T-Mobile also moved its disaster recovery team closer to the area likely to be hit hardest to restore service to cell sites struck by the storm as soon as possible. The carrier has dozens of generators and several cells-on- wheels on standby, it said. Tankers holding more than 10,000 gallons of fuel are ready to roll to affected areas to power cell site generators if power outages are widespread, T-Mobile said.

Sprint Nextel, still in the midst of merger integration, expects to build on its experience with Katrina as it prepares to face Rita, a spokesman said. “Katrina was the first time the merged company responded to a disaster of that magnitude,” he said: “This is going to be a 2nd time. We'll be able to build on what we accomplished the first time and will hopefully be able to react even better. Part of it is knowing about technology, but also about the process.”

Cingular set up its primary emergency response staging area in San Antonio, with network equipment and personnel on stand by, a spokeswoman said. It also has “a forward staging area in Grimes County, closer to the area where landfall is expected,” she said: “Network preparations include the staging of more than 220 portable generators, some 80 mobile COW units, or cell sites on wheels, and several hundred technicians, engineers and support staff in and around the region.”

On the satellite side, Inmarsat said it’s adding capacity to its U.S. voice and data channels to prepare for Hurricane Rita. PanAmSat said it has dispatched support teams, and has dispatched an emergency response team, assigned to restore telecom services, from its Ellenwood, Ga. center. Hughes Network Systems said it’s positioning satellite terminals and installation teams near areas likely to be hit by Hurricane Rita.

Cable companies with holdings out of immediate harm’s way were monitoring Rita. Comcast, the Dallas area’s largest cable operator, had 78 portable generators on hand in case power fails, a spokesman said. The company was stockpiling everything from flashlights and batteries to hardhats and fuel, he said. “We are notifying other employees in the region to be on standby,” said the spokesman, who added that extra equipment was also on hand, “so that we've got the resources we need once we have an assessment of what the needs might be.” Comcast has about 500,000 customers in and around Dallas, but none on the Tex. coast. Cable operators whose systems were likely to be in Rita’s path, including Cox and Time Warner, said Thurs. their efforts have included working with local authorities and sending crews and gear to safer locations (CD Sept 23 p5). The FCC said Fri. its emergency telecom services offices would be open Sat. and Sun. to help with the storm.

Issues Raised in Hill Hearing

The U.S. needs an effective emergency alert system, which Martin said should incorporate the Internet. Senate Commerce Committee Disaster Prevention Subcommittee Chmn. DeMint (R-S.C.) and ranking member Nelson (R-Neb.) Thurs. introduced a bill to set up a network to transmit emergency alerts across cellphones, BlackBerrys, cable and satellite TV and radio - digital and analog -- as well as nontraditional media such as sirens and “radios-on-a- stick.” The bill would set up a network that federal, state and local officials could use to send geographically targeted alerts and establish a grant program to help remote communities get warnings. “Today, with so much new technology, we do not have a uniform mechanism to contact our people in a time of crisis,” Stevens said: “This bill overcomes that obstacle.”

Stevens asked industry panelists how to improve disaster communications in a hearing Thurs. on emergency communications: “Were there any constraints that kept you from working together?” BellSouth CTO Bill Smith said his firm hasn’t got a “foolproof system” yet, but said emergency personnel need radio gear that can access a common frequency. He also suggested telecom infrastructure owners and operators be designated first responders, “which is not the case today.” Smith said industry cooperation after Katrina should serve as a “template” for future catastrophes.

Verizon officials said they've been working with nearly 40 companies and 23 federal agencies on emergency management. All are involved in a national coordinating center for telecommunications within the Homeland Security Dept. “We've spent time with our partners making significant preparations for Rita while still recovering from Katrina,” said Jim Bean, Verizon dir.-national security policy.