As FEMA Touts Puerto Rico Recovery From Maria, Pai Says Power Still a Problem
Lack of electricity throughout Puerto Rico continues to bedevil communications network recovery efforts, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai told Broadcasting & Cable, as the Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency said "power restoration continues to make steady progress throughout" the…
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island. "Power is absolutely essential," Pai said after his trip there (see 1711070068). "Especially in a situation like this where huge swaths of the island are without power and it is exceptionally difficult to be able to bring networks back." With operational status of many TV stations unknown, it's "difficult to predict when some of the hardest hit stations are going to get power," Pai said, B&C reported Tuesday evening. He criticized past FCC acts that resulted in closure of a field office in the territory. "The universal message I heard from broadcasters to wireless companies was that having staff on the ground had been tremendously helpful. I met the individual who was in that office. I was able hear from him and from the FCC staff there temporarily about how important that office was," he said: "It would have been helpful at the time of the storm and the lead-up to the storm to have had personnel there" full time. Tom Wheeler, FCC chief when the field office was shut in 2015 in trims to field staff amid cost cuts (see 1709280053 and 1507160036) didn't comment Wednesday. Under the commission’s 2015 order, "the San Juan office became unstaffed and was converted to a forward deployed location with staged equipment and vehicles," a commission spokesman said Wednesday: "Visiting FCC agents have since used that location when they have traveled to Puerto Rico, and following the storm we sent staff there in cooperation with FEMA. We have not yet made long-term staffing decisions" there. "Power has been restored to more than 41 percent of the island," DHS/FEMA reported Tuesday. "Puerto Rico has 1,261 working cell phone towers, bringing cell phone service to 92.5 percent of Puerto Rico residents."