Pai, Clyburn to Survey Irma Damage
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn will travel to Florida Monday to inspect the damage from Hurricane Irma, said a news release Wednesday. They will meet with those engaged in recovery operations, and get updates about the ongoing…
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efforts to restore communications. The storm has “had a serious impact” on communications networks in Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, Pai said. The storm caused “massive destruction” and disrupted telecommunications and travel between the islands in the archipelago, said the U.S. Virgin Islands Public Services Commission in an emergency petition filed with the FCC Wednesday. The PSC requested waiver of FCC rules requiring filing of state certification of support for eligible telecom carriers by Oct. 1. Clyburn said Pai offered her the chance to join him on the trip, and she looks forward to the FCC translating the information gathered during the visit “into actionable steps that the Commission and industry can take to ensure that our communications networks remain resilient in the face of these powerful and dangerous storms.” The FCC reported Wednesday that 29 Florida public safety answering points are experiencing problems due to Irma, same as Tuesday. In Florida, 18 percent of cellsites are down, an improvement from 25 percent. The hardest hit county there is Monroe, with 82 percent of cellsites down. In the U.S. Virgin Islands, 55 percent of cellsites are out of service, compared with 54 percent. In Georgia, 5.3 percent of cellsites in the disaster area are down, vs. 11 percent, and 10 percent are down in Puerto Rico, an improvement from 15 percent, and Alabama still has less than 1 percent of its cellsites down. At least 8.19 million wireline and cable subscribers don’t have service in the affected parts of Alabama, Florida and Georgia, an increase from 7.18 million. “Since there are widespread power outages in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the FCC has received reports that large percentages of consumers are without either cable services or wireline service,” the FCC said. Thirty-nine radio stations are out of service in the affected areas, down from 51. One more TV station is down than Tuesday, bringing the total to 10. Florida has three TV stations out, Puerto Rico five, and the Virgin Island has two down.