Hurricanes wreaked havoc on the East Coast networks this year, but natural disasters weren't the only cause of major outages. Here's Light Reading's coverage of network outages in 2024.
Many regions along the US East Coast have a long road ahead to rebuild after the unprecedented damage inflicted by hurricanes Helene and Milton. Fortunately, critical network infrastructure was quickly restored with temporary generator backups, and operators are in the process of repairing permanent power sources to cell sites.
In North Carolina, nearly 80% of cell sites in the disaster area were out of service on September 28 after Hurricane Helene hit, and about 40% were out of service for the affected areas in Tennessee.
Light Reading closely tracked the efforts of service providers as they prepped for the storms and handled the aftermath. AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile all have dedicated programs to support first responders during natural disasters. Temporary cell towers, satellite services, LTE mobile assets and more were deployed to support emergency responders as service providers assessed the damage to their permanent network infrastructure.
At the time, Verizon told Light Reading that the road to restoring network service would include a number of challenges that the service provider was preparing for. Cleanup crews removing debris and construction crews rebuilding communities can accidentally cut exposed fiber lines, which is why it's important for crews to call "811," the "call before you dig" phone line that provides information about where it's safe to dig without harming existing infrastructure.
The FCC, Starlink, AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile were among organizations providing free or discounted phone and Internet service options to customers impacted by hurricanes Helene and Milton for a limited time to support residents and local businesses after the hurricanes hit.
Other outages
Mother nature wasn't the only threat to network performance this year. AT&T and Verizon were both hit by several outages impacting major metro areas.
In September, more than 100,000 reports came in from major cities such as Chicago and Los Angeles regarding a Verizon outage. Some users were limited to SOS mode on their mobile phones, which means they were only able to access emergency services such as 911 calls. Verizon commented at the time that the company was aware of the issue and working on a fix.
In February, AT&T's network was down for several hours, impacting at least 75,000 customers and also taking down the company's FirstNet communications platform. AT&T said the outage was "caused by the application and execution of an incorrect process used as we were expanding our network, not a cyber attack." The operator added that it would offer customers $5 credits as an apology for the outage, which could cost the company a total of $140 million.
Here are some of the stories covering this topic in 2024:
02/07/24 – FirstNet pledges further investments into 5G
02/22/24 – AT&T network outage frustrates FirstNet users
02/22/24 – AT&T's outage twists up its MWC story
02/26/24 – Counting the cost of AT&T's outage
04/24/24 – AT&T: What outage?
09/20/24 – T-Mobile dedicates 5G network slice to first responders
09/27/24 – AT&T FirstNet buckles down as Hurricane Helene hits the east coast
09/30/24 – Over 100,000 reports come in for Verizon outage
10/10/24 – Milton hits as Verizon continues Hurricane Helene network restoration
10/16/24 – FCC, Starlink and major wireless carriers move to keep hurricane survivors connected
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