Texas Cell Networks, Wireless, Cable System Outages: Hurricane Harvey Aftermath

Amid Hurricane Harvey's aftermath, several areas across Texas have lost cellular/wireless, cable and wireline services, according to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). All information below is directly from the FCC...

Updated Wednesday, September 6, 2017

More than 150,000 Texas residents still lacked cable and Internet service in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, but cell service was steadily being restored to the affected areas, the Federal Communications Commission said Tuesday as it continued to assess infrastructure damage inflicted by the storm, Law360 reported. 

On the service provider front, AppRiver has activated a Digital Disaster Recovery Program -- an emergency email continuity program provided free by AppRiver to businesses facing imminent natural disasters. It's available to businesses in the Texas and Florida areas.

Updated Friday, September 1

As of Thursday, August 31, 10 a.m. CDT, the FCC noted the following outages:

911 Services:  There are a total of 7 (down from 11 Wednesday) PSAPs affected (all but one from Texas). There are no PSAPs which are down without a re-route. Four PSAPs from Wednesday were taken off the list:

Cell Service: There are 3.8% of the cell sites out of service in the affected area, down from 4.2% on Wednesday. There are no counties with greater than 40% of cell sites out of service.

Cable Systems and Wireline (Combined): There are at least 270,139 subscribers (slightly up from at least 267,426 Wednesday) out of service in the affected area. This includes users who get service from cable system or wireline providers. There are 36 (down from 42 Wednesday) non-mobile switching centers out of service and 38 (up from 25 Wednesday) switching centers on back-up power.

Broadcast:

Updated Thursday, August 31

As of Wednesday, August 30, 10 a.m. CDT, the FCC is aware of the following outages:

911 Services: There are a total of 11 (down from 15 on Tuesday) PSAPs affected (all but one from Texas). There are no PSAPs which are down without a re-route. Five PSAPs from Tuesday were taken off the list and one has been added. The one that has been added is in bold:

The following PSAPs were on yesterday’s list but are now fully operational: Aransas Pass PD, TX; Bay City PD, TX; Cameron PD, TX; Lee County SO, TX; and Matagorda County SO, TX.

Cell Service: There are 4.2% of the cell sites out of service in the affected area, down from 4.7% Tuesday. There are no counties with greater than 50% of cell sites out of service. Aransas and Refugio were both above 50% on Tuesday, but have dropped from 84.2% to 47.4% and from 73.1% to 26.9%, respectively. There are no cell cites reported out of service in LA.

Cable Systems and Wireline (Combined): There are at least 267,426 subscribers (down from at least 283,593 Tuesday) out of service in the affected area. This includes users who get service from cable system or wireline providers. There are 42 (up from 21 Tuesday) non-mobile switching centers out of service and 25 (down from 35 Tuesday) switching centers on back-up power. All of the additional non-mobile switches out of service are very small switches.

Broadcast:

Updated Wednesday, August 30

As of Tuesday, August 29, 10:00 a.m. CDT, the FCC mentioned the following outages:

911 Services: There are a total of 15 (down from 16 Monday) PSAPs affected (all but one from Texas). There are no PSAPs which are down without a re-route. Ten PSAPs from yesterday have been fully restored and nine have been added. The ones added are in bold:

Cell Service: There are 4.7% of the cell sites down in the affected area, the same as Monday. The counties with greater than 50% of cell sites out are Aransas and Refugio in Texas. In Louisiana, Calcasieu, St. John the Baptist, and Terrebonne are the only parishes to report any cell site outages, with each having only one cell site out.

Cable Systems and Wireline (Combined): There are at least 283,593 subscribers (up from at least 189,487 Monday) out of service in the affected area. This includes users who get service from cable system or wireline providers. There are 21 (up from 19 Monday) non-mobile switching centers out of service and 33 (up from 22 Monday) switching centers on back-up power.

Broadcast: There are 7 (down from 9 Monday) radio stations out of service: TX – KXAI, K224EH, KKTX, KPRC, KKPN, KKWV and KAYK. Note that KUNO, KMKS, KZFM, KKBA and KEYS have been removed from the list since yesterday while KXAI, K224EH and KKPN have been added. KUQI, a TV station in Corpus Christi, is out of service.

Updated Tuesday, August 29

As of Monday, August 28, 10:00 a.m. CDT, the FCC noted the following outages:

911 Services: There are a total of 16 (down from 17 yesterday) PSAPs affected (all from Texas). Six PSAPs from yesterday were taken off the list, and five have been added. The ones added are in bold:

Cell Service: There are 4.7% of the cell sites down in the affected area as of Monday, up from 4.1% Sunday. The counties with greater than 50% of cell sites out are Aransas, Calhoun, and Refugio in TX. Plaquemines is the only county in LA reporting any cell sites out.

Cable Systems and Wireline (Combined): There are at least 189,487 subscribers (up from at least 148,565 Sunday) out of service in the affected area. This includes users who get service from cable system or wireline providers. There are 19 (up from 11 Sunday) non-mobile switching centers out of service and 22 (up from 21 Sunday) switching centers on back-up power.

Broadcast: There are 9 radio stations out of service. This is the same number as Sunday: TX – KKTX, KUNO, KPRC, KKWV, KAYK, KMKS, KZFM, KKBA and KEYS. Note that KJOJ-FM has been restored to service and KMKS has been added to the list since Sunday. There are no TV stations reported as being out of service.

Updated Monday, August 28

As of Sunday, August  27, 10:00 a.m. CDT, the FCC noted the following outages:

Cell Service: Roughly 4.1% of the cell sites are down in the storm area. The counties with greater than 50% of cell sites out are Aransas, Calhoun, Refugio, and San Patricio in Texas. There were no cell sites affected in Louisiana.

911 Services: Roughly 17 public safety answering point (PSAP) systems are experiencing various issues. They include:

Cable Systems and Wireline: There are at least 148,565 subscribers out of service in the affected area. This includes users who get service from cable system or wireline providers. There are 11 non-mobile switching centers out of service and 21 switching centers on back-up power.

Radio and TV:

For ongoing coverage of Hurricane Harvey's aftermath, visit here.