When Hurricane Ida made landfall this summer, mobile and internet networks were among the first pieces of infrastructure to fail. More than 1,400 cell sites, representing more than half of all sites in the state, went down after Ida made landfall in Louisiana. While experts say that bolstering network resiliency is critical as natural disasters such as hurricanes and wildfires intensify due to climate change, putting increasing strain on telecommunications networks, the issue is rarely a high priority for service providers and governments. However, it appears the outages from Hurricane Ida have raised the level of urgency, given the Federal Communications Commission’s recent decision to revisit its rules on how companies are required to deal with disruptions to communications. Having backup power sources, especially on-site generators, would be crucial to helping networks stay up, but there is also a desire for better coordination between power utility companies and telecommunications operators to prevent outages. As pressure mounts on telecommunications companies to improve resiliency, Morning Consult data shows that about a third of the public thinks service providers and government entities can do more to ensure uninterrupted service during natural disasters.
