In times of crisis, many of us reach for our cell phones to stay connected and let family and friends know how we are doing. That is certainly true during a severe storm or hurricane. CellularOne COO Michael Leverock shares with us the company’s strategy for keeping the network operating during a hurricane and how they learned from the Fabian experience.

Q: What provisions has Cellular One made for hurricane recovery?

A: We have had a business & service continuity strategy in place for a while now in the case of hurricanes, which has evolved over time. Apart from the usual insurance coverage, our operations team has contingencies in place for hurricane damage and service interruption scenarios. In the first instance all of our facilities have backup power capabilities, and we have replacement spares for all of our network components and elements in the event they are needed.

Q: How does Cellular One plan to get up and running after a hurricane?<$>

A: For the most part the network is designed for crisis eventualities with inherent redundancies. Once an assessment is done of the network condition those areas which are mission critical and those which can be addressed and resolved quickly are sorted first. Because of the nature of how the network is configured and functions, it is not uncommon for these first order resolutions to have a network wide impact on overall infrastructure functionality and restitution.

Q: Does Cellular One have hurricane-proof towers?

A: All towers are designed in accordance with building codes which include hurricane force winds. If any damage is to occur at a cell site it is usually experienced with antennae and some of the cabling which is exposed to the elements, however, these are easily remedied. Thus far, we have been fortunate and not experienced any major structural damage at tower locations, which demonstrates the soundness of the infrastructure design.

In the past we have had 60 percent service availability immediately after a hurricane, case in point Fabian, with full network functionality within days of the natural disaster. Due to the inherent robustness of the network the damage incurred by us was minimal, and we have taken steps to implement measures to mitigate damage risks identified during the Fabian experience.