The FCC reported today that 87.9% of cell sites across Puerto Rico remain out of service in the wake of Hurricane Maria, “virtually no change from 88.3% yesterday,” it noted in its daily communications status report on the impacted areas. “All counties in Puerto Rico, except Bayamon, Guaynabo, and San Juan, have greater than 75% of their cell sites out of service. 33 (up from 27 yesterday) out of the 78 counties in Puerto Rico have 100% of their cell sites out of service,” the FCC said.

In the U.S. Virgin Islands, “67.0% (down from 68.9% yesterday) of cell sites are out of service.

100% of cell sites in St. John are still out of service,” the FCC said.

It reported that the main PSAP (public safety answering point) in Puerto Rico remains offline.

“911 calls are being sent to the other (back-up) PSAP in Puerto Rico, according to the primary service provider. In the U.S. Virgin Islands, the St. Croix 9-1-1 Call Center has been reported as completely down. FEMA has reported significant damage to the building. The St. Thomas 9-1-1 Call Center is unable to retrieve Phase I and Phase II location information for wireless callers and ANI/ALI for VoIP Callers,” it said.

As for cable system and other wireline service, the report said, “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 (one company had reported that 100% of its consumers are out of service due to lack of commercial power but told us yesterday that services are beginning to be restored). In Puerto Rico, there are at least 10 (same as yesterday) switches that are out of service due to either SS7 or toll isolation.”

The report also said that two TV stations in Puerto Rico are reported in the FCC’s Disaster Information Reporting System as being out of service, while another is reported as being on the air.  The report said that nine radio stations in Puerto Rico reported being out of service.  It said that “informal reports” indicated that one TV station and 22 radio stations were on the air in Puerto Rico. —Lynn Stanton, lynn.stanton@wolterskluwer.com

Courtesy TRDaily