Industry Slowly Bringing Towers, Other Facilities, Back Online

The FCC has not issued any additional grants of special temporary authority since Tuesday, but was prepared to act on applications if others come in, said Public Safety Bureau Chief David Turetsky. A number of radio stations remain off the air, with no changes since Tuesday, he said. Turetsky did not provide an update on the number of 911 call centers still experiencing communications problems.

"Overall, the condition of our communications networks is improving, but serious outages remain, particularly in New York, New Jersey, and other hard-hit areas,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said Wednesday. The FCC is working with FEMA as well as federal, state and local authorities and providers and will be “intensely focused on helping with the full recovery of wired and wireless communications infrastructure,” he said. The commission will “expect the unexpected” and attempt to unveil “the full picture” of Sandy’s impact, according to Genachowski.

AT&T and T-Mobile agreed to let each other’s customers roam on the other’s networks in heavily impacted areas and where capacity is available, the companies said. Calls will be carried by whichever network is “most operational” in that area, the carriers said. Verizon warned it will take a while to completely restore service. “Thousands of our dedicated employees are bringing customers’ services back across the affected area,” said Bob Mudge, president of Verizon’s Consumer and Mass Business division. “Unfortunately, the extent of the storm damage -- including lingering power outages and inaccessible roadways -- in harder-hit areas like New Jersey and the New York City metro area make full restoration a marathon and not a sprint.” At Time Warner Cable, there have been no reports of significant impacts to its network, a spokesman said. “We remain ready to go in behind crews restoring power and make the necessary repairs at the neighborhood level,” he said. “The biggest challenge is getting the power restored, and we won’t have an accurate assessment of customers without cable service until power is restored on a wider basis.” A Comcast spokeswoman gave a similar response. “We are continuing to assess and make restorations in areas we have been cleared to enter by power companies and local officials,” she said. A spokesman for Cablevision didn’t immediately respond to our query.

The Institute of Local Self-Reliance defended government’s role on its blog Tuesday, citing 911 and 311 operators. “When disasters hit, the government is the only agent with the authority and capacity to marshal and mobilize resources sufficient to the undertaking,” said David Morris, institute cofounder and leader of its public good initiative (http://xrl.us/bnw7mj). “It can coordinate across jurisdictions and with both public and private actors.” These municipal abilities go beyond “its balance sheet” and the recent events surrounding Hurricane Sandy have “shown how effectively [government] can perform that task,” he added.

The New York State Public Service Commission is attempting to monitor the ongoing outages. “Cable network outages remain as the most significant Telecom service disruption, in terms of customer impact, at over 1.7 million at this time, predominantly in the metro NYC/LI and Hudson Valley region,” its spokesman told us by email Tuesday night. The PSC doesn’t know the exact number of customers without phone service, he said, but “the E911 network and service is largely intact.” The telcos are “working to restore services as quickly, and safely, as possible,” he said.

In New Jersey Wednesday, CenturyLink crews continued to deploy and refuel generators at remote sites while assessing damages to its facilities, the company said. The majority of the telco’s New Jersey service territory was without power. The company was also repairing lines damaged by fallen trees in Pennsylvania, and refueling generators to keep phone service there operational, a spokeswoman said. CenturyLink was also reporting “sporadic” phone and broadband outages in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Lack of commercial power is Frontier Communications’ biggest challenge, a spokeswoman said. Several of the telco’s central offices were affected by power outages in New York and Pennsylvania, the company said. Portions of its network in those locations are running on generator and battery backup power. In West Virginia, the telco faces damaged and cut cables, but “lack of commercial power is our most significant challenge,” the company said. “We are working diligently to provide power to the other [central offices] and remote terminals through generators and batteries.” The telco said it’s working with state and local officials, and Frontier crews are working “as quickly and safely as possible” to restore service.

Windstream said it was experiencing “significant network issues in the New York City area,” including impacts to two of its switch sites in the city. The telco is having trouble resolving service issues quickly because of extensive flooding and power outages in the metro area. “Regardless of the roadblocks, we are aggressively working to restore service,” it said. Outside New York City, Windstream was restoring service to other communities hit by Sandy, with its Newark, N.J., switch back on commercial power, as well as “a number of network elements in Pennsylvania and Ohio,” the telco said. AT&T said the “vast majority” of its cell sites in the Northeast were online and working Wednesday. But in New York City and New Jersey, “flooding, power loss, transportation and debris” posed challenges to network restoration, the telco said. AT&T said it was “working around the clock,” conducting ongoing damage assessments, deploying generators and equipment, and moving “key personnel” such as engineers and technicians in from around the region and country.