Friday, September 22, 2017

FCC: 95% of cell sites in Puerto Rico still offline

Almost two days after Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, over 95% of cell sites remain offline, according to data from the FCC.

As of September 22, 2017 at 11:00 AM EDT, FCC data showed that 95% of cell sites in Puerto Rico are out of service. Critically, 47 out of the 78 counties in Puerto Rico have 100% of their cell sites out of service even nearly 24 hours after the storm passed. The FCC database shows that there are 1,789 base stations in Puerto Rico and 1,707 are down. Four additional cell sites lost connectivity in the past 24 hours.

In the U.S. Virgin Islands, 73% of cell sites are out of service - a 4% improvement in the last 24 hours.

With the widespread power outages in Puerto Rico it is assumed that cable Internet services are also offline for most customers, but the FCC had not received any data on the status of the networks.