Wireless carriers' failure to fully restore cellular service in Florida after Hurricane Michael "is completely unacceptable," Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said today in a rare rebuke of the industry that he regulates.
Verizon in particular has been under fire from Florida Governor Rick Scott, who says Verizon hasn't done enough to restore service. By contrast, Scott has praised AT&T for its disaster response.
The FCC will open an investigation into the post-hurricane restoration efforts, Pai said. Pai and Scott urged wireless carriers to immediately disclose plans for restoring service, waive the October bills of affected customers, and let customers switch providers without penalty.
Pai's statement didn't name specific carriers. but Verizon seems to be struggling the most to restore service, based on criticism from the governor. Verizon was the only wireless carrier mentioned specifically by Scott today in a statement that called on telecom companies to "treat Floridians fairly."
Gov. Scott suggested that Verizon has misled the public about its progress in restoring service. He said:
Verizon recently said in a press release that 98 percent of Florida has service. This statement, which includes customers in Florida that were hundreds of miles away from impacted areas, does not help Florida's law enforcement in Bay County and families communicate with loved ones in Panama City and does not help those needing medicine call their pharmacy in Lynn Haven.
[...] Verizon announced shortly after Pai's statement today that it will give three months of free mobile service to "every Verizon customer in Bay and Gulf counties."
"Verizon is 100 percent focused on repairing our network in the Florida Panhandle," the company said in a press release. "We are making progress every hour, and we expect that trend to continue at a rapid pace. We won't rest until service is completely restored."
Also at Reuters & The Washington Post
(Score: 4, Informative) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday October 17 2018, @10:57AM (6 children)
I became a regular blood donor when I read that Hurricane Harvey had destroyed Houston's blood banks, bloodmobiles and donation labs.
And in fact my first unit really did go to Texas.
I expect the Florida Panhandle has the same problem. Google yields the insight that it really does need your blood [redcrossblood.org].
Should you become a regular donor, you'll need extra iron and Vitamin B12 in your diet [warplife.com]. B12 because it's required to make red blood cells.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 17 2018, @11:48AM (4 children)
From the "Donate blood with a tumour on one kidney" saga, eh?
You must be crazy, man.
(Score: 5, Touché) by isostatic on Wednesday October 17 2018, @11:59AM
You must be crazy, man.
You must be new here
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 17 2018, @03:06PM (1 child)
Wait, what? He has a tumor on his kidney?
There is no cure for renal cell cancer, and it can be spread via the bloodstream. If someone knowingly did this, that would be evil as fuck.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday October 17 2018, @11:20PM
Provided you spell "Soggy Jobs" right.
Both the ER doc who relayed my CT Scan report to me, a Nephrologist who I was mistakenly referred to as well as the - correct - Urologist who will perform my surgery on the 31st - yes, halloween! - told me that I'm unlikely to kick off.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday October 17 2018, @11:18PM
And yes, I stopped donating when my tumour was found.
I'm not clear as to whether I'll be able to donate again - or if so when - after Hannibal Lecter has it for supper with a side of fava beans and a nice chianti.
This page [bloody-disgusting.com] points out that this is a _very_ obscure medical joke: Lecter is off his meds, because the three things you can't eat when you're on Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors are liver, beans and wine.
In the book he said he'd have Amarone, not Chianti, which goes better with liver but they changed it for the movie as they expected most of their target market would be unfamiliar with Amarone.
And yes: Lecter was gonna have liver, but I get to keep mine. So far.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 18 2018, @01:42AM
Can't. My blood has t3h gay.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by drussell on Wednesday October 17 2018, @11:56AM (5 children)
Meanwhile, in Puerto Rico....
:facepalm:
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Wednesday October 17 2018, @05:04PM
Puerto Rico, how many swing votes ?
(Score: 1, Troll) by Sulla on Wednesday October 17 2018, @06:26PM (3 children)
In Puerto Rico the infrastructure was so poor because of local/state government incompetence that it was not possible to even get food/water from staging areas to people in need of it.
https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/puerto-rico-crisis/puerto-rico-lacked-disaster-planning-communications-strategy-hurricane-study-found-n904866 [nbcnews.com]
Florida has all these kinds of things in place, knows what to expect, knows how and when to deploy. A necessary partner failing their expected role in the plan is a huge problem, especially if it causes problems downstream.
I dont like defending ATT/etc, but this is a Puerto Rico governmental problem.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday October 17 2018, @11:21PM (2 children)
A solid five years _before_ Katrina killed one thousand new orleans residents I watched a 60 Minutes report on the sorry state of their levees.
FIVE YEARS.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2, Informative) by Sulla on Thursday October 18 2018, @02:47AM (1 child)
Kind of my point. I think its kind of unfair to put fault on the President for issues that are ignored by local government. Puerto Rico, Louisiana, the rest, should have been way better prepared than they actually were for these disasters.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Thursday October 18 2018, @12:20PM
The problem with Puerto Rico is their electric grid and their electric generating plant was dead before the storms ever hit. It was in very bad shape. It was in bankruptcy, had no money. Zero -- in fact, LESS THAN ZERO!!!
(Score: 2, Touché) by fustakrakich on Wednesday October 17 2018, @12:16PM (2 children)
Really, how does a wireless provider have trouble restoring service?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1, Troll) by VLM on Wednesday October 17 2018, @02:52PM (1 child)
Protocol mismatch, gotta reconfigure all the gear to speak Spanish, this being Florida and all that.
Is a somewhat serious problem in that if you got people in location A who can't do the civilizational-cultural thing of self-rescue and provide themselves cell service, then move them all to location B, don't be shocked when loc B becomes observationally indistinguishable from old loc A. There is no such thing as magic dirt. If Florida demographically resembles Haiti, then its performance after a hurricane SHOULD resemble Haiti's performance, is there any rational way it could not? This simply can't turn out like a hurricane hitting all those white people in Rhode Island, its a different demographic.
Of course its not all negative; Cubans have a thing to try and corner the market for medical care, and something I've not heard complaining about is a lack of trained first aid providers, which is about what you'd expect given FL demographics. They may not have cell phones but they'll have decent medical care.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 17 2018, @03:23PM
They may not have cell phones but they'll have decent medical care.
Yeah, I'm sure the demand from all those old retired fuckers had nothing to do with it... Oh well, that's what they get for voting republican.
(Score: 5, Informative) by SpockLogic on Wednesday October 17 2018, @12:45PM
Gov. Rick (The Crook) Scott is running for the Senate and would go to the opening of an envelope if he thought it would get him free TV coverage.
Overreacting is one thing, sticking your head up your ass hoping the problem goes away is another - edIII
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday October 17 2018, @02:43PM (1 child)
Ham radio guys still go out there to disasters just like decades ago, then do ... something ... although no one seems to specifically know what.
Serving the general public used to be a thing as per the article, although with the rise of Orange Vest culture it seems they serve the government agencies in some unknown capacity much more, instead. In the really old pre-Orange Vest days all this "those needing medicine call their pharmacy" would have been handled on 2M FM or 20M SSB or maybe 80M NVIS, but not so much anymore.
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Wednesday October 17 2018, @10:01PM
Seeing the mobile network falter during natural disasters is enticing me to purchase a radio. I have a Ham license to fly FPV drones, but never got into the rest of the hobby. I always thought amateur radio was a bit silly when I already have a very convenient radio transmitter in my pocket. However, I also thought that the mobile networks would have more redundancy built into them by now, which has been demonstrated as not the case.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 17 2018, @04:26PM (3 children)
FCC Commissioner insists companies immediately return to giving out the Bread although the wheat fields were damaged and hold the Circus although the Big Top blew away. Because peoples without their mobiles internets are all helpless. (Instead of thinking... maybe this was a reason you should have retained your landline and learning that in a disaster cell services are always disrupted to some degree or other?)
I call the waaaambulance for them now.
And yet another proof of how useless Ajit Pai is. No surprise.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 17 2018, @05:59PM (2 children)
Just so you know, the circus in "bread and circuses" was a chariot race track, not the PT Barnum style.
It's closer to Nascar today, though I suspect it must have been more interesting, since it featured so prominently in both East and Western Roman culture.
(Score: 2, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Thursday October 18 2018, @12:41PM (1 child)
I'll tell you, we love NASCAR. We partnered with NASCAR. And we're going to build a beautiful race track in NYC. With 300,000 seats -- biggest race track by far in the entire history of New York. We call it Trump Super Speedway. Because, tremendous speed, super speed -- the likes of which New York drivers have never seen. We have some fast drivers in NYC, but nothing like this. Get ready!!!!
(Score: 3, Funny) by Snow on Thursday October 18 2018, @08:22PM
An apt symbol for your administration - unable to make a turn in the right direction.