In a report issued Tuesday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that although the FCC supported telecommunications restoration efforts following Hurricane Maria, future disaster recovery efforts by the agency could be improved. The GAO found that the FCC’s disaster response role was unclear in guidance published by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), even though the guidance states that all …
Joint agency team assesses Puerto Rico cell tower damage
A team from FEMA and Joint Force Land Component Command assessed damage to cellular and radio towers today caused by Hurricane Maria throughout the island of Puerto Rico According to Spc. Gabrielle Weaver, the team assessed several towers via helicopter in an effort to reestablish communication to the island. They are trying to make a list of which one is …
FCC votes to give $77 million for telecom in PR; Governor’s outages differ from FCC
Update: Oct. 4, 2017 – The FCC unanimously voted today to immediately provide carriers with up to seven-months’ worth of support from the FCC’s Universal Service Fund, which helps lower the cost of deploying service in areas that are costly to serve. Any funds advanced under today’s action can be used to repair telecommunications infrastructure and restore service to customers …
Lack of on-site generators, COWs, contributes to Puerto Rico’s still horrendous cell service
After Hurricane Maria’s catastrophic devastation of Puerto Rico’s cell sites, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai directed his staff last week to reach out to American Tower, SBA Communications and Crown Castle “to see how we can work together to address Puerto Rico’s communications needs,” However, according to over a dozen industry professionals interviewed by Wireless Estimator, the answers are already known …
Puerto Rico’s horrendous cell site outages complicated by generator/fuel theft concerns
Puerto Rico’s cell service is still devastated today with over 91% of its sites out of service, basically the same as yesterday. The horrific outages caused by Hurricane Maria are also being felt in the U.S. Virgin Islands where 60.4% of cell sites are out of service, slightly down from yesterday’s 61.3%. In San Juan, P.R., subscribers saw a poor, …
