T-Mobile Hurricane Katrina Relief Update

BY JOHANNE TORRES

TMCnet VoIP Minute Watch Columnist

 

T-Mobile USA today announced that it has restored service coverage in areas destroyed by hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast.

 

According to the wireless phone operator's news release, the company restored more than 80 percent of its network service in the Mobile, Alabama area. The carrier also announced it made more than 40 percent of T-Mobile market coverage now operational in the Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

 

Additionally, despite the fact that the downtown New Orleans area is still experiencing limited service, the carrier announced it restored fifty percent of T-Mobile wireless coverage in the greater New Orleans area.

 

"T-Mobile crews are making progress in their efforts to restore service [in New Orleans] as emergency personnel allow access to some of the hardest hit areas," noted the company's news release. The carrier's New Orleans Switching facility serves New Orleans and Baton Rouge. These remained operational during Katrina's activity and its aftermath.

 

T-Mobile also announced that it sent a group of its engineers and technicians from the company's offices in Atlanta, Dallas and Houston to conduct onsite recovery efforts.

 

The carrier has begun to utilize several hundred generators and dozens of cells-on-wheels (COWs). The carrier announced it "has access to enough fuel to keep the generators powering cell sites up and running, and to bring new sites online," noted T-Mobile's news release.

 

According to the carrier's update, its Gulf Coast-based personnel "rode out the storm at its switching facility in New Orleans in an effort to keep its network functioning at the highest service levels possible."

 

TMCnet came across news reports from The Register about T-Mobile also offering free WiFi access across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama until the end of the week, and "possibly beyond that if the situation warrants it," noted the news Web site.

 

T-Mobile USA, Inc.

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Johanne Torres is contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more articles by Johanne Torres, please visit: