Wireless carriers' disaster plans tested after storm

Large wireless carriers stepped up disaster recovery efforts over the weekend as a rare derecho storm stomped through the Mid-Atlantic, and millions of cell calls and data downloads strained their capacity. Many regional cell sites were still without power, and customers complained of spotty or non-existent coverage.

Industry executives and analysts say wireless networks, with cell sites designed to cover as much as 5 to 10 miles, often struggle during heavy call volumes. But they also say a series of disaster-recovery measures the carriers put in place after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 helped mitigate disruptions during the weekend. "There has been a lot of effort to beef up and backup power," says Phil Marshall, a mobile network analyst at Tolaga Research. Managing network capacity in disasters and large events has always been critical to carriers' operations. But the industry's investment in such efforts has ratcheted up in recent years, along with its greater ambition to install faster data networks and attract more customers using smartphones, Marshall says.