Re: Hurricane Michael: Communication Service Provider status

[Sean Donelan <sean () donelan com>]

26 fatalities reported so far, 4 hospitals closed.

Telecommunications:

FCC Chairman Pai and Florida Governor Scott issued loud complaints about 
the speed of restoration of cell sites and telecommunications after 
Hurricane Michael.  This seems to be an over-reaction to the lack of 
action after Puerto Rico last year. This issued several demands for 
actions that cellular providers almost always do after major disasters. So 
I expect them to claim victory when the carriers do the standard thing.

1. After disasters cell providers almost always implement "open roaming" 
allowing customers to use any working cell tower, even of different 
carriers.  This was implemented in Puerto Rico for months. If cellular 
carriers in Florida haven't already done this, I expect they will.

2. Waive subscriber bills in the disaster area. Again, due to how open 
roaming works, most carriers will waive bills during the disaster.  Mostly 
because billing doesn't work with open roaming, so make it a public 
relations benefit.

3. Deploy more disaster cell sites (COWs, COLTs, flying cell sites, etc.)


AT&T put out a happy, happy, joy, joy press release saying "nearly fully 
restored in most affected areas."  AT&T provide no details what that 
means, what affected areas, or what is not restored yet.

https://about.att.com/pages/hurricane_michael

Verizon put out more details about the impact on their network.

https://www.verizon.com/about/news/hurricane-michael-network-updates

Bay County, Florida still appears the most affected.  Major fiber and 
roadway damage in the county.  Verizon is using flying cell sites in Bay 
County, and deployed several satellite connected COWs/COLTs.

Spectrum Cable (Charter, Time-Warner, etc. merged)

Spectrum has some generic informatino that its service has been 
interrupted by damaged from Hurrican Michael.

https://www.spectrum.net/page/weather-center/

Electric Power:

Braford County: 56% out of service (65,859 customers)
Calhoun County: 98% out of service (6,930 customers)
Gasden County: 68% out of service (14,781 customers)
Gulf County: 88% out of service (9,695 customers)
Jackson County: 83% out of service (21,621 customers)
Liberty County: 69% out of service (2,796 customers)