Verizon, AT&T and others sign Wireless Network Resiliency agreement, will cooperate during emergencies

The nation's five largest mobile carriers are backing an initiative that would help them to share information and fix network outages during disasters and other emergencies. Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and US Cellular signed on to the Wireless Network Resiliency Cooperative Framework, which is aimed at providing reasonable arrangements for roaming, fostering mutual aid, enhancing government agencies' preparedness and restoration, and improving public awareness of service and restoration status during emergencies. The pact is the result of five months of discussions among CTIA, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler, and Rep Frank Pallone (D-NJ), who late in 2015 introduced the Securing Access to Networks in Disasters Act. The SANDy Act, which was approved recently by the Energy and Commerce Committee, was created to improve the resiliency of US communications networks during emergencies. The bill is a response to the breakdown of telecommunication networks during and after Hurricane Sandy, which slammed into the Northeast US in October 2012.