The Wireless Industry Responds to 2024 Disaster Season

Hurricane Debby

Hurricane Debby was the fourth named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season and a slow-moving and erratic Category 1 hurricane that caused widespread flooding across the Southeastern United States. It made landfall early August 5 in Florida, with states of emergency also declared in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.

Despite dozens of tornadoes and historic flooding, at least 99% of cell sites in the impacted areas remained in operation throughout the event.

Wireless providers coordinated in advance with state and local authorities to support community needs in areas in the storm's predicted path and deployed mobile assets accordingly. After the storm, they provided Wi-Fi, power, device charging, charging supplies and billing relief to impacted customers.

For more information:

• AT&T
• T-Mobile
• Verizon

Hurricane Beryl

Hurricane Beryl was the earliest-forming Category 5 hurricane on record and the first major hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season. The deadly storm broke many meteorological records for the months of June and July, due to its unusual intensity, longevity and location. It made landfall in the U.S. on July 8 near Matagorda, Texas, and caused more than 2.7 million households and businesses in the Houston metropolitan area to suffer from prolonged power outages during high summer temperatures and humidity.

Due to advanced preparations, some detailed below, wireless providers' engineering and restoration teams were able to quickly deploy once Beryl had passed and it was safe to do so. Though more than 225,000 customers were still without power on July 15, a full week after landfall, wireless service rebounded quickly with less than 5% of cell sites out. Wireless providers noted that networks were operating near normal, thanks to backup power, intentional redundancies, coverage overlaps and deployed mobile assets, which stayed in place to ensure connectivity until engineering teams finished their work to bring the last sites back online.

Preparations

In preparation for the storm, wireless providers initiated their storm preparedness plans, readying disaster response equipment and putting personnel on standby.

• AT&T: "AT&T has initiated its storm preparedness plan as Hurricane Beryl tracks toward South Texas. The AT&T Weather Operations Center has a team of degreed meteorologists delivering business-specific weather intelligence, analytics and forecasts. Their expertise aids in mitigating the risk of impact to the AT&T network and assets, and helps to keep our employees safe. Our network preparations include: Topping off generators with fuel at our cell sites and switch facilities; Testing high-capacity back-up batteries at cell sites; Protecting our physical facilities against flooding; Staging emergency response and network recovery equipment in strategic locations for quick deployment following the storm; Prepping dedicated FirstNet® deployable network assets for use by public safety agencies on FirstNet, as requested.
• T-Mobile: "T-Mobile's Network and Emergency Management Teams have continued to strengthen and harden our network in areas likely to be impacted by Beryl, an extension of our year-round resiliency efforts. Network teams are working with utility companies, and our Network Operation Centers are closely monitoring network status. To help mitigate the impact of commercial power outages, our teams are working to refuel fixed generators, ensure battery backups are charged, prepare local fueling stations and stage additional portable generators for rapid deployment, if necessary. Additionally, our engineers, field technicians and rapid-response technologies such VSATs (Very Small Aperture Terminals), SatCOLTs (Satellite Cell on Light Trucks) and microwave solutions are ready to be quickly deployed and can provide temporary backhaul, boost coverage and offer critical support if needed."
• Verizon: "Verizon's networks are primed to maintain connectivity even in the face of extreme weather conditions, such as hurricanes. With redundancy built into critical paths and components, Verizon's network is engineered to withstand severe weather. Verizon engineers have prepared by conducting thorough checks, ensuring backup systems like batteries and generators are operational and refueled. In readiness for potential network recovery operations, Verizon has bolstered its arsenal with: A fleet of over 550 portable network assets, including generator-powered cell sites, drones, and a fixed-wing aircraft for aerial support; An industry-leading 200 satellite-based portable network assets, providing crucial connectivity in scenarios where fiber connections are compromised; More than 1,000 mobile generators to assist communities in maintaining or restoring connectivity, and rapid recovery efforts."

For more information:

• AT&T
• Verizon
• T-Mobile

Western Wildfires

As of August 2024, the summer wildfire season had impacted large areas of California, Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington State.

In each situation, wireless providers quickly mobilized resources to provide first responders and other public safety agencies with critical support and where applicable, supported customers in the impacted areas with billing relief.

For more information:

• AT&T
• T-Mobile
• Verizon

Resources

For additional resources, click the links below.

• Wireless Network Resiliency Cooperative Framework
• CTIA: Emergency Preparedness
• Ready.Gov
• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
• National Hurricane Center
• American Red Cross