Emergency Communications

Verizon Wireless service is back up and running "essentially everywhere" throughout the area hit by Hurricane Michael, the company said. "Verizon engineers and fiber crews have been working around the clock after unprecedented damage to our fiber infrastructure caused by the most intense storm in history to make landfall in the Panhandle," Verizon's announcement said.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai praised Florida's first responders and telecommunications companies. He was in Tallahassee, meeting with state officials at the emergency operation center discussing the response to Hurricane Michael. Chairman Pai was happy to see telecom companies react to his earlier, critical statement and contribute resources to local relief efforts. "I was very happy to see that there has been some progress in response to the statement I put out earlier this week," he said.

Persistent cellular site outages after Hurricane Michael left many first responders and residents of Panama City (FL) unable to reach loved ones or those in need of help for several days, drawing the ire of some government officials. A week after the storm made landfall, nearly half—46 percent as of 11 am on Oct 17—of cell sites in Bay County (FL) which includes Panama City and Mexico Beach, remained out of service, according to the Federal Communications Commission.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai and Gov Rick Scott (R-FL) have expressed frustration with the slow pace of restoring communications in FL in the wake of Hurricane Michael. What neither Chairman Pai nor Gov Scott mention is their own roll in creating this sorry state of affairs. Their radical deregulation of the telephone industry, despite the lessons of previous natural disasters such as Hurricane Sandy, guaranteed that providers would chose to cut costs and increase profits rather than invest in hardening networks or emergency preparedness.

I want to share with you a snapshot of what the Federal Communications Commission under Chairman Ajit Pai’s leadership is doing to leverage technology to promote public safety.

Gov Rick Scott (R-FL) and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai have not taken responsibility for how their radical deregulation of telephone service has contributed to the slow pace of repairs for FL's communications services. In 2011, Gov Scott signed the “Regulatory Reform Act of 2011,” which eliminated virtually all oversight of FL’s residential telephone service.

Even though efforts to restore communications services have been going well in most of the areas affected by Hurricane Michael, the slow progress in restoring wireless service in areas close to where the hurricane made landfall is completely unacceptable. While the Federal Communications Commission has been in regular contact with companies serving the affected areas, I’m concerned that their actions on the ground aren’t matching the urgency that we have conveyed during those conversations.

Hurricane Michael has caused such extensive damage to the fiber that underpins Verizon's wireless network that it has stymied the carrier’s efforts to restore service to parts of the hardest-hit areas of the Florida Panhandle. Verizon’s network suffered “an unprecedented amount of fiber damage” in those areas during Hurricane Michael, said spokeswoman Karen Schulz. Wireless service problems have persisted for the carrier in parts of Panama City, Panama City Beach and Mexico Beach.

Data from the Federal Communications Commission’s Disaster Information Reporting System shows that Hurricane Michael caused substantial communications outages along its destructive path.

Verizon is touting its commitment to firefighters and public safety in a new ad, released weeks after Verizon throttled the Santa Clara County fire department while it was fighting California's largest-ever wildfire. "From coast to coast and everywhere in between, people rely on us to ensure they can communicate when they need it most," Verizon said in an introduction to the new ad. "Our innovations and technology allow first responders to do their jobs.