Sprint Learns from 2012 Superstorm Sandy

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When Hurricane Sandy hit the northeastern seaboard things went haywire, especially in the telecommunications sector. The area wasn’t used to storms such as this, and the infrastructure didn’t handle the storm very well. The FCC reported that 25% of the cell towers in 10 states were knocked out during the storm. While Sprint wasn’t the only carrier to lose sites, they did share what this storm taught them. Ann Goodman of Green Biz reported, “Among the key learnings from the debacle, said Tanya Jones, manager of Sprint Corp.’s vital Emergency Response Team Operations: How better to rebuild; where better to stage; how better to ‘future-proof our technology to ensure our equipment is upgraded and our personnel equipped’ for disaster.” During the hurricane, Sprint was able to provide critical communications services to various first responders and emergency agencies using vehicles such as COWS (Cell On Wheels) and COLTS (Cell on Light Trucks). “While a disaster is a disaster, I subscribe to the theory that the climate is changing weather patterns. You see more forest fires in the west and more hurricanes; you see increased water and air temperatures and storm activities; and there’s been an uptick in severity of storms,” Jones said. Carriers must stay prepared to handle any type of climate change that comes their way.

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