No one will debate the impact that Hurricane Harvey has had on Texans. The wrath of Harvey swept through many Texas counties, destroying cell phone towers and leaving many people without phone service and internet. In fact, many cell phone towers were still down the Monday after the hurricane hit Texas. Hardest hit were Houston and Corpus Christi. Texas suffered the loss of internet and telephone service in over 180,000 homes. This was followed by the loss of 364 cellular towers and 16 call centers. Many of the coastal counties in Texas were hardest hit with 85 to 95 percent of the cell phone towers down in those areas.
The Hardest Hit Countries
Houston’s Harris County was dealt the toughest blow by Harvey with 110 cell phone towers down. Nueces County followed closely behind with 51 cell phone towers down. The loss of cell phone towers freezes communication, making it impossible for people to text or call, let alone access the web. Sometimes it’s possible to get cellular service through a nearby tower, however. Despite the widespread outages in Houston, cellular service was still active for many cell towers. Despite the loss of 110 cell towers, most cell towers remained active. Only 3.5 percent of the total cell phone towers in Harris County were down. However, Nueces County lost 19 percent of its cell towers.
T-Mobile & Metropcs Provide Free Calls Text and Data through September 1st
In response to the cell phone outages, both T-mobile and Metropcs provided free calls, text, and data through September 1st. Plus, 7 portable cellular sites have been deployed to cover outages in different areas. However, technicians are actively working to restore cellular service in all areas experiencing outages. AT&T has also gone as far as installing generators at different cell towers as well as switching facilities. They are also doing their best to protect physical facilities from flooding.
Service Providers Working Round the Clock to Restore Service Areas
Many of the major cell phone companies have technicians working to restore service or maintain it in areas that have outages. Over 98 percents of Verizon’s towers are still up in the south Texas region. They have weathered the storm. Verizon is also set to deploy wireless communication centers as well. They will be providing a variety of different mobile devices as well as chargers to help people contact others or simply power their devices if they are unable to due to the loss of electricity. Verizon is also providing affected customers with extra voice, data, and texting services. In addition, Sprint, Boost, and Virgin Mobile customers in affected areas of Texas and Louisiana, received free service through September 1st as well. With IoT becoming such a key part of so many industries, basic satellite iot is continually being developed to serve the IoT sector and customers across many different levels. Satellite investors are continually working on technology to develop different services and hardware to enable IoT. During natural disasters like Hurricane Harvey, this form of technology can be helpful in the present and as it continues to grow and develop.
Hurricane Harvey wiped out internet services for many Texans, leaving cellular providers scrambling to restore services. Houston’s Harris County was the hardest hit with 110 cell towers that went down. However, the overall damage just left an impact on 3.5 percent of Houston’s cell towers. However, many people were still able to receive service. Most service providers report that the majority of the areas that lost internet services have been restored. However, during periods of outages, many cell phone companies provide their customers with free talk, data, and text, as well as wireless communication centers. These centers provided mobile devices to contact friends and family, or simply equipment to charge cell phones and other mobile devices. The impact of Harvey left many cell towers down in its wake. However, many services have been quickly restored.
by: Vincent StokesĀ
Tags: article, Cell Phone Towers, Hurricane Harvey, Science
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