T-Mobile Prepared for This Year’s Hurricane and Wildfire Season
It’s that time of the year again: hurricane season and wildfire season are two events that we have to prepare for once again. And now that these two seasons are back, the Un-carrier is getting ready to help its customers, businesses, communities, government agencies, first responders, and others be prepared for these unfortunate events.
This year, researchers predicted that some parts of the country will be getting above normal risks for wildfires and record-breaking hurricanes. Here’s how T-Mobile is preparing for these:
- Turning on new 2.5 GHz spectrum to boost critical coverage and capacity for nearly 60 million customers throughout the country, including hurricane-prone areas such as Louisiana.
- Continuing to harden its network with permanent backup power solutions like generators and batteries.
- Launching a Community Support Advocates Program that provides specialized disaster response and recovery training for T-Mobile employees looking to support on the frontlines.
- Adding brand-new XL SatCOLTs (Satellite Cell-On-Light-Trucks) and XL SatCOWs (Satellite Cell-On-Wheels) — T-Mobile’s largest disaster response network vehicles yet — later this year.
- Increasing its vehicle fleet of network SatCOLTs and SatCOWs, as well as heavy-duty trucks to provide Wi-Fi and device charging.
In a press release, T-Mobile unveiled how it is taking this time to prepare its disaster response and resources. T-Mobile’s President of Technology, Ulf Ewaldsson, said:
“At T-Mobile, we understand the vital role we have in keeping people connected during challenging times, so we continue to expand coverage and capacity, invest in network resilience and evolve our approach to disaster response to be ready to respond when we’re needed. Connectivity is a lifeline in a crisis, so we’ve increased training, added more vehicles and further built our network. Our priority is to ensure everyone who needs connectivity has it — from families to public safety and first responders. We’ll be ready.”
You can read more here.