Hurricane Irma, which hit Florida, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico in September, knocked out about 819 fixed network central offices or switching centers, as well as incapacitating more than half of all mobile switching centers in some areas, according to the Federal Communications Commission.
Given the widespread loss of electrical power, taking some five million customers offline, across a few Southeast states , it is perhaps not surprising that some seven million people lost mobile, fixed telephone or cable TV service.
Restoration of electrical service might take a couple of weeks in the hardest-hit areas. That makes a difference to end users for obvious reasons. Without local power, even when the mobile towers are operating just fine, batteries run down and the phones will not work. Also, without power, there is no refrigeration, lighting or air conditioning, so potential customers might not even be in the affected areas in any significant numbers.
Such disasters also point out some limitations for emergency services. Without local power, cordless phones do not work, even if the network remains operational. Mobile communications might be available, but without local power, phone batteries cannot be recharged.
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