According to the FCC, there are 3.8% of the cell sites out of service in the affected area of Hurricane Harvey, down from 4.2% yesterday. There are no counties with greater than 40% of cell sites out of service. There are no cell sites reported out of service in La.
Since the peak of 365 cell sites out of service on Tuesday (see tables below), restoration efforts have lowered that count by 19% to 296.
However, FEMA has asked the FCC to extend the data collection to nine additional counties in Texas, adding: Bexar, Fayette, Hardin, Jasper, Montgomery, Newton, Sabine, San Jacinto, and Waller.
Compared to Hurricane Katrina which saw over 1,000 cell sites out of service, Harvey’s outages are remarkably better, although it is likely that there will be agencies that would like to see cell sites out of service lessened in the future during major catastrophes.
The FCC will issue a report following Harvey’s departure which will also focus upon actual loss of coverage. As an example, although AT&T has a number of sites not operating, they also have a fleet of mobile sites providing coverage.
In addition, they announced today that they plan to deploy 2 Satellite Cell on Wheels (Sat COLTs) in Beaumont, Texas and stage 12 more in the area to support customers and first responders.
They will also be inspecting cell towers with a fleet of 25 drones to determine the hurricane’s impact on their network. Using drones lets them access areas that can’t be reached by cars or trucks because of flooding.
Cable Systems and Wireline (Combined)
There are at least 270,139 subscribers (slightly up from at least 267,426 yesterday) out of service in the affected area. This includes users who get service from cable system or wireline providers. There are 36 (down from 42 yesterday) non-mobile switching centers out of service and 38 (up from 25 yesterday) switching centers on back-up power.
Broadcast
There are 9 (up from 5 yesterday) radio stations out of service: TX – K224EH, KHJK, K251AL, K255BB, K237FS, KFNC, KTXB, KKWV, and KAYK. Note that KXAI has been restored and removed from the list since yesterday, while KHJK, K251AL, K255BB, K237FS, and KTXB have been added.
There are 2 (down from 3) TV stations out of service: TX -KFDM and KBTV, all in TX. KUQI has been restored and removed from the list.
August 31, 2017 – 11:30 A.M.
August 30, 2017 – 11:30 A.M.
August 29, 2017 – 11:30 A.M.
August 28, 2017 – 11:30 A.M.
August 27, 2017 – 11:30 A.M.
August 26, 2017 – 11:30 A.M.
