Almost Three-Quarters of Puerto Rico Cellsites Still Down; Telrite Refiles Lifeline Petition
About 74 percent of cellsites remain out of service in Puerto Rico (slightly down from Sunday) and 55 percent of cellsites remain out of service in the U.S. Virgin Islands (same as Sunday), the FCC reported Monday in its Hurricane…
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Maria communications update. It said both Puerto Rico public safety answering points are reported operational, as are the 911 call centers in St. Croix and St. Thomas. Amid continued widespread power outages, the FCC "has received reports of large percentages of consumers are without either cable or wireline service." Two TV stations are confirmed operational in Puerto Rico and one TV station is confirmed out of service in the Virgin Islands; and 72 AM and FM radio stations are confirmed operational in Puerto Rico and 33 are out of service, while two AM radio stations are confirmed operational in the Virgin Islands. Meanwhile, Telrite asked the FCC to increase Lifeline monthly per-subscriber support by up to $25 for six months in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands to help with recovery, conditioned on providers supplying enhanced voice and data offerings. Telrite filed the emergency petition on Oct. 6 but the FCC electronic comment filing system "encountered significant technical issues and disruptions" that day, so Friday the provider resubmitted the petition with a request it be accepted as filed on Oct. 6.