Three months after Hurricane Sandy struck the Northeast, the federal government is trying to determine what could be done better to keep cellphone and Internet services running in the event of another natural disaster.
The Federal Communications Commission met with representatives of phone carriers, public utilities and city governments in New York on Tuesday to discuss what happened to broadband and cell services during Hurricane Sandy and how to improve performance.
In November, the hurricane knocked out commercial power in several cities, causing service failures for all of the big phone carriers in the Northeast. About a quarter of the cell towers were not working at some point in the storm’s aftermath. Many had no power, and their backup battery systems were soon exhausted. Carriers used generators for power, but eventually those required more fuel â€" another limited resource.
It took several days for the carriers to restore most of their service; in some cities, some cell tower are still down.
Julius Genachowski, chairman of the F.C.C., said the storm “underscored something important: how essential modern communications like mobile and broadband have become to our daily lives. They connect us to family, work and emergency services. And we sure notice when we can’t get through on our phones or connect to the Internet or get TV or radio news.â€
At the meeting on Tuesday, commissioners asked what could be done to prevent network failures, how to make networks more resilient and what could be done to speed restoration.
A crucial issue brought up was the inability to communicate with the carriers. Jack Schnirman, city manager of Long Beach, said that after wireless service went down in his city, it was easy to contact government officials using radio devices but impossible to contact a phone carrier.
“The lack of communication and response from service providers was extremely disconcerting,†Mr. Schnirman said. “All cell towers were down and n! o service providers were around.†He said the carriers needed to make it easier to reach them. He added that in the aftermath of the storm, he had not seen any of the trucks that act as temporary cell towers during emergency situations, known as cell on wheels.
Jim Gerace, Verizon’s head of government and external affairs, said the company had an account manager working with Long Beach and perhaps that person had not reached Mr. Schnirman. He did not address how one would go about reaching a Verizon representative in the middle of a storm. He also said the company had taken five days to deploy cell trucks there because it had to wait for streets to open so they could enter the areas.
Parts of the meeting discussed potential solutions for the loss of power. Rahul N. Merchant, New York’s chief information and innovation officer, said longer-lasting batteries would be very helpful for carriers. The backup batteries the carriers now use last eight hours.
But after Hurricane Katrina in 205, the F.C.C. recommended that carriers install backup batteries that last 24 hours. The carriers objected, presumably because they did not want to spend the money, some lawyers say. At Tuesday’s hearing, commissioners noted that some cities’ zoning policies did not give cell sites enough room for bigger backup batteries, and said the federal government would need to collaborate better with local governments to revise these zoning restrictions.
The second half of the meeting takes place on Tuesday afternoon in New Jersey.
