The Republican National Convention wasn’t the only organization making adjustments over Labor Day weekend to help victims of Hurricane Gustav. Alltel, AT&T, Boost Mobile, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless all mobilized their plans to maintain communications for residents affected by the hurricane.

The operators sent network crews to the coastal states to make sure the network stayed operational during and after the storm. For instance, Alltel closed some of its retail stores in Southern Louisiana to support evacuation efforts as well as monitored the storm through its command center operations so it could mobilize manpower, generators and other equipment as needed. 

The operators also identified network preparations including secured agreements with fuel vendors to keep trucks and generators running, prepped generators waiting for immediate dispatch and prepared lodging, food and water for technicians in storm-hit areas.

Boost Mobile, a division of Sprint, announced that it will suspend roaming charges for Boost customers in Louisiana and Texas in an effort to ease the transition for those displaced by the storm.  Boost suspended its fee of 15 cents per minute for all calls made outside their normal home calling area for customers in the New Orleans and South Texas.

T-Mobile USA set up its Incident Command Team at the Birmingham Command Center and at locations throughout the Southeast to mobilize teams of technicians and engineers.

Similar to the other operators, it also lined up fixed and backup generators as well as fuel to keep cell sites operational in the event of power outages.  It also dispatched microwave radio equipment to the region to help with data communications from the cell sites to T-Mobile's network switches, as backup, in the event T1 fixed line service fails.