Telecom Providers, FCC Tout Readiness for Winter Storm Jonas
Wireline and wireless companies and the FCC were prepared and putting in place strategies to deal with any outages or problems caused by what the Weather Channel calls Winter Storm Jonas, they told us Friday. The federal government, including the FCC and the D.C. Public Service Commission, which deals with local telecommunications issues, sent most employees home early Friday due to the coming storm.
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The FCC has "redundancies in place" to ensure NORS -- the commission's terrestrial network outage reporting system -- and the agency's IT systems stay online throughout Winter Storm Jonas, a spokesman told us Friday. "In addition, the FCC's 24/7 Operations Center will be operational throughout the storm."
Several wireless providers issued news releases Friday to alert consumers on the East Coast to their plans for dealing with any problems caused by the weather and appeared to be taking similar measures to prepare. Verizon installed backup generators and batteries at cell sites across the country "to maintain wireless communications even in the event of a prolonged power outage," it said in a news release. Verizon said it has backup measures, including mobile cell sites based at switch processing centers, ready to deploy to "hard-hit locations or areas needing extra wireless capacity" if needed. "Whether we get two inches or two feet of snow and ice, the Verizon networks will be ready."
Sprint's network teams are "closely monitoring the network due to the potential threat of impacts from Winter Storm Jonas," a company spokeswoman told us. "In addition, disaster recovery teams began storm preparation activities in advance of the storm." The spokeswoman also said all of the company's network field resources were on alert to prepare for response to any network impact, the company had resources ready to transport, fuel and maintain portable generators, and posted on its emergency information page a list of all retail store closings due to winter weather.
AT&T "has an arsenal of disaster response equipment and personnel on standby" to deal with any impact from the storm, a company news release said Friday. AT&T "topped off fuel at generators positioned and installed and tested high-capacity back-up batteries at cell sites," and installed generator plugs at many of its cell sites, it said. "Our national reliability center is monitoring outages for quick action." An AT&T spokesman told us Friday the company closed retail locations in Maryland, D.C. and Northern Virginia at 2 p.m. Friday.
T-Mobile also said it was preparing for Winter Storm Jonas by "readying backup generators, Cell-On-Wheels (COW) and fuel tanks [and] setting up an engineering Command Center in the areas of expected impact." T-Mobile engineers and rapid response teams were "ready to mobilize," the company said in a news release Friday. All T-Mobile stores open during and after the storm "will provide charging stations for consumers, regardless of their carrier affiliation, to help everyone remain connected with friends and family," said the release.
Wireline service providers were also preparing contingency plans and strategies to deal with the storm. Frontier teams in West Virginia, Connecticut and portions of New York were "equipping fleet vehicles with extra fuel, fluids and lighting, double-checking all safety equipment and supplies used by field technicians, and placing emergency network supplies throughout company facilities," a Frontier spokeswoman told us. "Frontier is monitoring the storm and knows how critical our network is for public safety and the well-being of our customers," said the spokeswoman. "The company updates its emergency response efforts on a continual basis and reviews lessons learned from prior severe weather."
"CenturyLink has plans and resources in place to keep services operational during the storm and to restore any disrupted services due to damaged lines and equipment as quickly as possible," a spokeswoman told us. The company's preparations included "readying emergency crews, fueling portable generators, establishing storm checklists, contacting governmental agencies and first responders and initiating a real-time command center for CenturyLink employees to stay in communication throughout the storm's impact," said the spokesperson. The company also implemented certain precautionary measures, including increasing roof inspections at its facilities as well as adding staffers and booking nearby hotel rooms to accommodate them.
On its wireline services, a Verizon spokeswoman told us it activated its national emergency coordinating center and was doing daily status calls to assure all of the center's business units were prepared for the storm. Verizon's wireline networks were functioning normally in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions, the spokeswoman said around 1 p.m.