As a historically powerful cyclone of winter weather rips through the eastern United States, major carrier T-Mobile felt it appropriate to make a post explaining what kind of bolstering and recovery preparations its customers will have helping to keep them connected as the storm continues to bear down. T-Mobile's network preparations include a number of redundancy and weatherproofing efforts, but once passive protections fail, the Un-Carrier has crews and equipment ready to help keep customers connected, or get them back onto the network. The post also has a few tips for customers who want to stay up to date or interact with T-Mobile regarding the storm and associated service outages.

On top of physical enhancements to base stations and other network equipment, T-Mobile prepares for disasters like this one by setting up a dedicated command center, along with teams of engineers whose sole job is to watch the network for outages and respond as quickly as possible. There are also a large number of Geo-Redundant Network Operation Centers that help out the engineers on the ground and coordinate network traffic for maximum efficiency during network-stressing events. If disaster does strike an area, T-Mobile can deploy people and equipment as soon as it's safe to get the network going again. Portable generators, fuel trucks, and portable cell sites are just a few of the tools that T-Mobile has at its disposal to get customers connected again when its network equipment on the ground fails.

T-Mobile also offers some tips for customers in affected areas. For starters, you can keep up with recovery efforts by calling 611 from a T-Mobile phone, checking the My T-Mobile website, or following CTO Neville Ray on Twitter. As far as weather news, T-Mobile recommends Weather.gov. Customers should use text messages instead of calling or using data-based communication services when possible in order to conserve network resources. If calls do have to be made, they should be kept short. Keep in mind that T-Mobile is closely monitoring its network, and will be aware of any outages before anybody gets a chance to report them. On that note, if conditions in the area are hazardous, T-Mobile is not going to risk the safety of its employees and equipment. As a final aside, if you happen to have power and working Wi-Fi, using T-Mobile's Wi-Fi calling can work even if you have no mobile signal.