FCC: 25% of cell towers, broadband down in 10 states

Michael Winter, USA TODAY | USATODAY

Telecommunications companies told federal regulators that Hurricane Sandy knocked out 25% of wireless cell towers and a quarter of cable services in 10 states. Landline outages were far fewer.

A "very small," but unspecified, number of 911 call centers have also been affected, but emergency calls are being rerouted, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski told reporters Tuesday afternoon.

Neither the telecom firms, which voluntarily reported the figures, nor the FCC estimated how many wireless and cable customers were affected. But the FCC chief warned that service would likely get worse before it gets better. Further disruptions are expected as the storm moves west and north or if cell towers running on backup generators go down before electrical power is restored. Utility companies estimated that between 7 million and 8 million customers did not have power.

"The storm is not over. And our assumption is that communications outages could get worse before they get better, particularly for mobile networks because of the flooding and loss of power," Genachowski said during a conference call, Cnet reports.

The cellphone outage, as estimated at 10 a.m. Tuesday, covered 158 counties from Virginia to Massachusetts, Cnet says.

The main issue affecting the restoration of service to cell sites is the fact that commercial power may be out for several days or even weeks in some areas. Between 7 million to 8 million people are reportedly without power in areas affected by the hurricane, officials said.



Some cell sites have already been running on backup power. But the FCC was unable to say exactly how many. Still, the commercial power issues mean that these sites could also go down in the next day or so, especially if repair crews are unable to get to sites that need battery replacements and generators that need refueling.



The agency said that other cell sites were damaged by flooding and that some have also been damaged by snow.

New York-based Verizon reported flooding at three central offices with telecommunications equipment in Lower Manhattan, Queens and Long Island, Reuters reports. Its downtown headquarters, which serves most of Wall Street, had 3 feet of water in the lobby.

Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA all reported service problems, as did Cablevision Systems, Comcast and Time Warner Cable.

To ease the strain on the systems, Genachowski urged cellphone consumers to limit "non-essential" calls and to text, e-mail or use social media to communicate with family and friends instead of calling.

Regarding 911 outages, Genachowski said, "continuity is absolutely vital. We take these issues very seriously. And we're looking into how we can help. The FCC's emergency response team has been working with FEMA and state and local officials to resolve these issues."