When Hurricane Katrina blasted ashore on Aug. 29, Hu Meena, president of Cellular South, was ensconced in the company's Biloxi, Miss., headquarters. Corporate personnel had been sent home for the day due to the storm, but Meena and a few others stayed in a conference room –staffers refer to it as the "War Room" – tracking the storm and keeping tabs on the network.
Every hour on the hour, technicians would call a bridge number and provide a status check on the company's various tower sites and switches, which are spread across parts of Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and Tennessee. As the storm moved through the Gulf Coast region, Meena and his staff became increasingly concerned about one technician in Biloxi who hadn't reported in for quite some time. After several hours, the technician, Bruce Utley, called to report that he and his family were fine, but a fallen tree had destroyed his home.
Despite his family's losses, Utley had taken the time to check a Cellular South tower site, right after moving his family to a local shelter. The site was without power so he quickly started the generator and within minutes, he had a cellular signal and was able to make that critical call to Biloxi to let Meena and others know his status. Not only was he able to make that important call, so were many others like him who were without wireless service because of the downed site.
This kind of dedication to the job is not unusual among employees of regional operators, where workers often are friends and neighbors with their customers. "These are the times when the customers rely on us," Meena says. "When a storm moves through an area, there are a million excuses for why you can't restore service. It has to be more than a business interest to propel you to restore service. That's where guys like us have a big advantage. This is our home."
EXTRA STEPS Regional operators in the Gulf Coast are certainly no strangers to hurricanes and tropical storms. SouthernLINC Wireless, a division of Southern Company that operates an iDEN network in Alabama, Georgia, southeast Mississippi and parts of Florida, had planned carefully for the possibility of a huge storm. The company even built some cell sites that stand on piers above the flood plain so they can withstand storm surges such as those experienced by Hurricane Camille in 1969. Although a few of those sites flooded after Katrina, the company's foresight and planning helped it minimize its losses.
On Sept. 1, just two days after Katrina hit the coast, 98 percent of the company's sites were up and running. And just a little more than a week after Katrina, SouthernLINC had all of its existing sites on air plus one new site in Mobile, Ala. That site was not planned before Katrina but became necessary to build after damage from the storm left the local power company without any communications.
Some outages, according Bob Dawson, president and CEO of SouthernLINC Wireless, resulted from problems in the landline backhaul connections from the cell sites to the switch. The company was able to get those sites up and running quickly thanks to its backup microwave backhaul technology. Dawson says only two SouthernLINC cell sites were out of service because of flooding and the company quickly deployed cell sites on wheels (COWs) to compensate for those outages.
Cellular South's network was fully operational by Sept. 9. Like SouthernLINC, Cellular South had problems with its landline backhaul. Meena says dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina made him realize that the wireless industry is too dependent upon landline systems. "Some critical links went down," he says.
When it came to tower sites, Cellular South wasn't as lucky as SouthernLINC. The company had two towers on the Mississippi Gulf Coast that were completely demolished by the storm. They both will have to be rebuilt. Still, Meena is happy that just two were lost. "Two towers out of 54 towers that are on the Gulf Coast isn't bad."
Both Meena and Dawson credit their companies' quick recoveries to advance preparations, such as stocking extra generators and outfitting cell sites with extra fuel. "Power is always a concern after a storm," Meena says.
UNIQUE SOLUTIONS Advance preparation may be critical, but so is quick thinking and creative problem solving.
Cellular South enlisted the help of its fellow regional wireless operators. Meena says that when he realized the enormity of the storm, he sent out a plea for help to members of the Associated Carrier Group, an alliance of independent operators that collaborate with each other on handsets and infrastructure gear. Within days, Midwest Wireless and First Cellular of Southern Illinois sent technicians and trucks filled with fuel and generators. Meena also received technical assistance from Cellular South vendors Nortel Networks and Lucent Technologies.
SouthernLINC quickly solved a unique problem when it found out that calls in the 228 area code couldn't connect due to problems with the local landline switch. Because many SouthernLINC customers live in the 228 area code, the company quickly provisioned those customers' phones with a second line that had an 800 number so they could send and receive calls. The company provisioned the 800 number over the air and sent voicemail messages to all those customers notifying them of their second line and the new 800 number. "We were able to add a second number to their phone on the fly and send them a message letting them know they could call out and receive calls with this number," Dawson says.
The company's Instant LINC walkie-talkie service, as well as its mobile-to-mobile cellular calls, were unaffected by Hurricane Katrina, which Dawson says has helped reinforce the importance of the company's service, particularly to public safety officials. "We are adding capacity and bringing on new customers, particularly in the government and public safety," he says.
TRAFFIC INCREASES Both Cellular South and SouthernLINC have seen traffic on their networks surge in the aftermath of the storm. Some traffic is from new customers who have switched service providers and some are landline customers who have ported to wireless. However, the majority of that usage comes from roaming revenue. Cellular South alone has seen a 256-percent increase in the number of minutes carried on behalf of other carriers' customers since the storm.
Dawson anticipates that SouthernLINC traffic will remain heavy as public safety, emergency management and government officials use the company's service while they help restore the area. In addition, the company expects that all of the construction firms that are rebuilding the area will be big users of SouthernLINC service. "When you look at the damage, you realize that it will take a tremendous amount of effort to rebuild. And a lot of our customers will be doing that rebuilding," Dawson says.
When it comes to quick recoveries from disasters like Hurricane Katrina, the small, regional operators definitely stand apart from their larger counterparts when it comes to commitment to their communities, advance preparations and building on past experience. "Because we are regional, we have people local to the area who are there before, during and after every disaster," Dawson says. "That makes a huge difference."