US telecom networks took a hit from superstorm Sandy, which knocked out some emergency call centers, the Federal Communications Commission said Tuesday.
FCC chairman Julius Genachowski told reporters that a “very small number” of emergency call centers were knocked out in the storm, causing rerouting of urgent 911 calls, in some cases without the normal location identifiers.
“We take these issues very seriously and are looking into all reports,” he said, without providing further details.
Overall, Genachowski said Sandy delivered a “substantial and serious” hit to the telecom infrastructure in the northeastern United States.
“Our assessment is that communications outages could get worse before they get better, particularly for mobile,” he said, adding that flooding and snow in some areas could hamper recovery efforts.
FCC officials said that in the “core” region identified of 158 counties in 10 states from Virginia to Massachusetts, around 25 percent of wireless cells were out of service.
Officials said it was not possible to tell how many customers had no wireless telephone service, because they may be able to access using nearby cells. Fixed wireline service suffered less damage, officials said.
“Information is still coming in and it changes from hour to hour,” said David Turetsky, the FCC’s head of public safety and homeland security.
He added that some wireless cells had switched to backup electric power after outages, but that “many sites were running out of backup power.”
The FCC said a similar percentage of 25 percent in the affected areas lost access to cable television or cable Internet service.
US telecom networks take hit from Sandy
