| FRIDAY - SEPTEMBER 2, 2005 - ISSUE NO. 178 |
Dear friends of Wireless Messaging and Paging, Before beginning with the news about Hurricane Katrina, I want to express my sympathy for the families and loved ones of the people who perished in this terrible tragedy. There are many who are grieving over losses, along with thousands of others who are suffering from injuries, and who have lost every material thing that they possessed. There has been some really bad reporting on television that at times almost sounded like they were glad something like this has happened so they could glibly report it. So, let's not lose sight of the fact that this is a human tragedy. Most of the news in this week's newsletter is about the affects of the hurricane on communications. I want everyone to know about the heroic efforts going on to restore and maintain vital communications equipment and services for the emergency personnel trying to bring aid to the injured. Times like this show that many people work for more than just a paycheck. Yes, paychecks are important, but there are many people who are working long hours without rest to restore communications. They believe in what they are doing and can see how it will help others. In several previous issues, I have lamented the fact that little has been done since 9/11 to improve communications for first responders. This natural disaster—possibly the worst one ever to occur in this country—is teaching us painful lessons about how communications can break down when we need them the most. So I am going to repeat once again my firm belief that Paging is the BEST technology to use when it is necessary to alert many people in a short time. Why?
I have talked to many people this week on the telephone. Even the top managers of several of the largest Paging companies—who were, and continue to be, very busy—took my phone calls and agreed to contribute to this report on what is being done to maintain communications. One of them told me that this has been the worst week of his life. I am sure he will look back someday with great pride on what he has accomplished. On Tuesday of this week, I sent out a news bulletin with the following message that I received from a subscriber to this newsletter involved in the rescue efforts in New Orleans: QUOTE FYI I am with an Urban Search and Rescue for FEMA and with the cell and data service down and systems being flooded. I just want you and your readers know that ReFLEX is working fine and communications are flowing through the units! We are allowing people to send e-mails to loved ones to let them know they are alive and well. Again the critical use of the ReFLEX in the all the disaster situations I have been to (9/11 NYC, Ivan, Isabel and now Katrina!) Carter C Blumeyer http://braddye.com/homeland_security.html UNQUOTE I just heard from Carter again and he was on his way to Missouri to lead the second rescue team back to New Orleans. Now on to the rest of the news and views. | 
A new issue of The Wireless Messaging Newsletter gets posted on the web each week. A notification goes out by e-mail to subscribers on most Fridays around noon central US time. The notification message has a link to the actual newsletter on the Internet. That way it doesn't fill up your incoming e-mail account. There is no charge for subscription and there are no membership restrictions. Readers are a very select group of wireless industry professionals, and include the senior managers of many of the world's major Paging and Wireless Data companies. There is an even mix of operations managers, marketing people, and engineers—so I try to include items of interest to all three groups. It's all about staying up-to-date with business trends and technology. I regularly get reader's comments, so this newsletter has become a community forum for the Paging, and Wireless Data communities. You are welcome to contribute your ideas and opinions. Unless otherwise requested, all correspondence addressed to me is subject to publication in the newsletter and on my website. I am very careful to protect the anonymity of those who request it. NOTE: This newsletter is best viewed at screen resolutions of 800x600 (good) or 1024x768 (better). Any current revision of web browser should work fine. Please notify me of any problems with viewing. This site is compliant with XHTML 1.0 transitional coding for easy access from wireless devices. (XML 1.0/ISO 8859-1.) |
| HURRICANE NEWS |
Your Help Needed From: On Behalf Of Tracy Waldron Answer Center Because Katrina has had such devastating affects to all the areas she touched, a lot of fellow answering service operators have lost their homes and belongings. The answering service industry has come together as a group to start a fund to help operators who were victims of Katrina. We are asking everyone but most specifically those who know and have been helped by answering service operators in the past to contribute whatever they can to help these outstanding people who so often are the ones to say "How can I help you?" It's our turn to help them. This is the website that they have created to help us do what we can for them. These are people who have no home, no food, no jobs even to go to. They have lost everything and have no idea how long it will take to get it all back. Most operators work at or below the cost of living wage and do not have insurance to help them put their lives back together. Please take a moment to look at the site and give whatever you think you can. I think of our operators here right now in the next room taking calls. Giving everything they can to each of your callers. I think about them and what would happen to them if Katrina had hit here. Where would they go, what would they do if they didn't have this job or a home to go to. I pray that someday if anything ever happened to any of them, this fund would be available to them. Again, just take a moment to take a look and if you can spare a few dollars to help them get back on their feet. Thanks, Tracy Waldron |
[More discussion on this relief effort follows below in the READER'S COMMENTS section.]
| HURRICANE NEWS |
Hurricane Katrina—State of Mississippi—Gulf Coast—USA Damage to SkyTel Paging Sites | |
 Paging Tower |  Former Paging Receiver Site—Grand Casino |
 Paging Tower |  Inside Hall in Grand Casino |
 Outside View of the Grand Casino | Hurricane Katrina State of Mississippi Gulf Coast USA |
| HURRICANE NEWS |
A MESSAGE FROM VINCE KELLY, PRESIDENT & CEO
August 31, 2005
Anyone who has seen pictures of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina knows of the difficulties being faced by people in that part of the country. We want every employee in New Orleans, Gulfport, Jackson, and the surrounding affected areas to know that the entire management team and board of directors are concerned about your health and safety as well as that of your family. Those of us who watched the storm approaching on Sunday night and Monday morning can only imagine how you felt and the decisions you had to make. We send you our very best wishes for a quick and speedy return to normal life at home and at work, and we are prepared to do our best to support you and help you recover from this unfortunate storm.
That support will include the opportunity for USA Mobility employees, including the Board of Directors and Senior management, to contribute to a special fund intended to assist employees who have lost their homes or have been otherwise affected by this terrible disaster. Further information on that fund will be forthcoming. Our fund coordinator will be Doug Mertes in Human Resources assisted by Sharon Woods Keisling in our Treasury department.
We should also take a moment to thank Mike Curd and our Technical group for their tremendous efforts in maintaining and repairing our paging systems. A number of our transmission sites in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi went down during the storm, but many have been repaired and are now back in service. Where necessary, we are augmenting permanent installations with mobile units until the facilities that have been damaged beyond repair can be replaced. Multiple teams of field techs are working through difficult conditions to restore service as quickly as possible, especially to the critical hospital, police and emergency response customers that rely heavily on us. Understand that this means in many if not most cases they are going without adequate facilities to wash, sleep or eat. Many can only drink the water they carried and they are tired. What keeps them going is their dedication to their fellow man, their recognition of the critical service we provide, and YOUR support and gratitude. Make sure you let them know how very proud of them we are.
Thankfully, the building housing our billing and IS installation in Jackson, MS did not sustain major damage. However, power and telephone lines remain down in much of that area, although commercial power to the facility itself has now been restored. Due to advance planning by the IS team, we had sufficient generator power to keep the system up and running, and as of last night they had enough fuel to last them well over a week with a promise from the fuel company of repeat deliveries. We understand that our Jackson employees have had a very difficult time due to the massive damage of trees, power lines, banks being closed and lack of fuel. Peter Barnett, our Chief Operating Officer, is doing everything in his power to address specifically some of these situations and is very focused on our team members there. Yesterday afternoon, under the leadership of Dave Duclos, our SVP of Technology, we dispatched a truck to Jackson loaded with supplies. It will be there any minute now. Also, due to the Mellon lockbox situation we have decided to wait one more day to run Cycle 1 in order to get the payments received posted to customer accounts prior to invoicing so as to avoid confusion and unnecessary phone calls post billing.
Remarkably, the Pensacola call center avoided major damage, even though they experienced high winds from the storm. Although they were closed on Monday, Pensacola was back on line yesterday and running at full capacity, fielding their normal call volume. We understand the schools are still closed there and we acknowledge and greatly appreciate the sacrifices and special arrangements employees are making to support our call activity. We thank Lynn Pomas for her leadership.
Once we re-establish communications, we’ll learn more about the effects of the hurricane on our employees. So far, we’ve heard from about half of the ones who live and work in the area hit by the storm, and all are in good health. Many of them will suffer personal hardships as a result of Katrina, including damage to homes and possessions, as well as loss of power and water, perhaps for an extended period of time. At this point, especially in Mississippi, there are many employees we simply have not heard from. To the extent any of you can get news on these fellow team members, please forward it to Doug Mertes in Human Resources so he can update our records. Gulf Port was extremely hard hit; in fact one of the buildings housing a paging terminal was completely destroyed and washed away. Our technical team is already addressing this and has reconstructed a terminal in Dallas and is providing access via an over dial capability to restore paging functionality.
Under the leadership of Jim Boso, Mark Dipple and Kedron Pogue we have provided literally hundreds of free pagers to Emergency Service, hospital, police and other mission critical storm recovery agencies. We will continue to do so as our corporate citizenship and leadership role requires. We have been in touch with the Red Cross, FEMA and Department of Homeland Security and we are offering and providing services. After all, we are USA Mobility and after what we have all been through in the last five years we are not about to let a hurricane get us down!
Meanwhile, we will continue paying all affected employees in the area their wages through the end of next week, even if they are unable to make it to work. After next weekend, we’ll review the situation to determine when our offices will reopen. We’ll also arrange to have Counselors ready to provide special services to employees as needed or when requested. Some of our customer service employees from the New Orleans area may be asked to relocate temporarily to Pensacola, where they will work and be housed at our cost until our New Orleans office is able to reopen.
However, I want to make something very clear. If we have an employee with a special need, who has experienced a severe personal loss we would like that information right away. Supply it to Doug Mertes and we will immediately see what can be done to help them out.
We all recognize that this is a terrible natural disaster for many of you, as well as your families and friends and many of our loyal customers. I appreciate the bravery, resolve and professionalism you have demonstrated over the past several days. And, I am proud of the team who mobilized to support those of you affected by the storm and to support our customers’ needs. Let’s keep up the good work!
| HURRICANE NEWS |
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| WIRELESS NEWS |
COMMUNICATIONS
Millions Said to Be Lacking Phone Service of Any Kind
By KEN BELSON
Published: September 1, 2005
Efforts to get food, water and electricity to the hundreds of thousands of survivors of Hurricane Katrina have been hampered by a lack of an essential tool: the ability of aid groups, citizens and even the phone companies to communicate with one another.
Landline and wireless phone service across the Gulf Coast from New Orleans eastward has been largely cut off, and restoring it will take weeks, if not months.
As many as 750,000 BellSouth landline customers and millions of cellphone customers are thought to be without service across Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, though precise figures are hard to come by because phone companies have been unable to get to all their equipment to assess the damage.
"As difficult as last year was," said Bill Smith, the chief technology officer at BellSouth, speaking of the efforts to restore service after a string of hurricanes in Florida, "it may have been a dress rehearsal for what we're seeing now."
The spotty or nonexistent coverage in the affected areas highlights one longstanding myth about cellular phone service: that users can make calls even when electric power or landlines are inoperable.
What millions of Americans do not realize is that cellphone service relies on land-based fiber optic networks to route calls.
When customers place cellphone calls, their calls are sent to nearby antennas, which are connected to base stations operated by each mobile phone company. Those base stations pass on the calls using fiber optic lines to switching stations operated by BellSouth and other landline providers. BellSouth then sends the calls on to their destinations.
If any of this equipment is out of service, whether because of fallen trees, cut cables or flooding, calls typically cannot be placed.
"If we don't have landline connectivity to our equipment at the towers, it doesn't matter if it's running," said James J. Gerace, a vice president at Verizon Wireless. "Customers could be getting five bars on their phone and they can't get through."
Much of the cellphone system relies on electric power, too. When electricity is interrupted, many switching stations and cellular base stations switch automatically to alternate power sources, either batteries or generators that run on diesel fuel. BellSouth, for instance, has 180 switching stations running on generators.
But most of these sources can supply only 24 to 48 hours of alternate power, which means many stations could shut down soon.
While the worst disruptions are in and around New Orleans, where the most equipment is submerged, coverage is only slowly improving elsewhere in the region. In the hard-hit towns along the Mississippi coast, phone company workers—not to mention ordinary cellphone users—are having to trek five miles or more inland to get a signal on their phones.
Cellular companies have been trying to fix this problem by moving "cell sites on wheels" into the area. Verizon, for instance, has 20 of these three-axle trucks, some working in Baton Rouge, La., and some sitting on elevated roadways in New Orleans waiting for a place to go.
As with stationary cellular base stations, though, these "COW's" have to connect to a wider network to complete calls. Some will connect directly to telephone switching equipment. Others will connect using microwave antennas that beam signals to other dishes that are connected to networks.
Many of the New Orleans residents with a 504 area code have been unable to receive calls on their cellphones, even if they have left the region. All cellphones have a home switching office, which keeps billing and service data. When people call a 504 number, the disabled switching stations in New Orleans are unable to route the call.
While voice coverage in New Orleans and other areas hit by the hurricane is sporadic, some cellphone customers have been sending and receiving text messages. These messages get through because, unlike voice calls, they do not need to immediately connect to a user on the other side. Rather, the data packets that form a message are small and will wait until a network is free.
To circumvent cellular networks entirely, many officials—including some phone company chiefs—are using satellite phones. They do not rely on equipment on the ground because they beam their signals to low-orbiting satellites. But the batteries on these phones can provide only about six hours of talk time. Some are equipped with solar rechargers, while others can be plugged into cigarette lighters and wall jacks.
Iridium, one of the country's largest suppliers of satellite phones, said the amount of traffic from the region on its satellites had doubled since the storm and was likely to rise further.
Some of Iridium's dealers have also been swamped by requests for handsets, which typically cost $1,500 each. Craig Van Wagner, the chief salesman at GMPCS, a distributor of Iridium phones in Pompano Beach, Fla., said he had "done a month's worth of business in two days," or about $1 million in sales.
Getting the phones to customers is another question. GMPCS is shipping handsets by overnight mail to Jackson, Miss.; Birmingham, Ala.; and other cities near the worst-hit areas. Customers are typically picking up their phones there because delivery service is so spotty closer to the heavily damaged towns.
Carmen L. Lloyd, Iridium's chief executive, said he had been scrounging up thousands of handsets to send to emergency service workers and others in the area.
Vikas Bajaj contributed reporting for this article.
Source: The New York Times
FCC Extends Deadline
The FCC has announced that it is extending until September 28, 2005, the deadline for paying 2005 regulatory fees for those entities affected by the recent Katrina hurricane. To take advantage of the extension, FCC licensees and other regulated entities must include a certification with their payment that the payment could not be made on a timely basis because of the hurricane. Full details concerning the extension are contained in the following FCC press release. [Courtesy of the AAPC.]
 | PUBLIC NOTICE | ||
| Federal Communications Commission 445 12th Street, S.W. Washington, D.C. 20554 | News Media Information 202 / 418-0500 Internet: http://www.fcc.gov TTY: 1-888-835-5322 | ||
DA 05-2396 By the Commission: Commission Extends Regulatory Fee Filing Window For Those Regulatees Affected By As a result of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in certain areas within the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, the networks of many essential services have been disrupted causing the delay, suspension, or elimination of certain commercial and government services. The Commission is mindful of the effect of the hurricane on licensees and regulatees who are required to pay annual regulatory fees pursuant to 47 U.S.C. § 159 (Public Law 103-66). Due to the interruption of essential services such as, but not limited to, banking, mail, utilities, and other public services, the Commission is extending the deadline date for those licensees and regulatees in the affected area for filing FY 2005 Regulatory Fees from 11:59 PM, September 7, 2005 to 11:59 PM September 28, 2005. For all others, i.e., those not affected by the hurricane, the previous announced window remains in effect, and the Commission’s rules concerning late payment or non-payment will be enforced. Licensees and regulatees affected by the hurricane must include a certification that payment could not be made within the previous announced time because of the hurricane. Licensees and regulatees that submitted a manual payment of the regulatory fees during the days immediately before Hurricane Katrina affected the area, and who have reasonable belief that payment is or may be delayed by the hurricane, should notify the Commission, as soon as practicable, of the details of payment, including FRN, method of payment delivery, amount, and date of payment. The Commission continues to monitor circumstances of the hurricane including recovery and reconstruction efforts, and we will provide additional guidance as is necessary. Both manual filing of regulatory fees, and the Fee Filer automated system will be available during the extended filing period. We encourage you to use the Fee Filer automated system to process your filing. You may visit the Commission’s website at www.fcc.gov/fees then click on Fee Filer for additional information on how to use the system. The Financial Operations Help Desk (1-877-480-3201, Option 4) will remain available to assist filers in using the Fee Filer until 6:00 PM Eastern time, September 28, 2005, or in the alternative, you may contact ARINQUIRIES by email for further assistance. | |||
Source: FCC web site
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Orion and PixelPlay Partner to Create First Interactive TV Mobile Entertainment Portal
Sophisticated, fully interactive TV based portal enables viewers to download mobile entertainment content via their TV to their cell phones
New York—August 30, 2005—Orion Information Services and PixelPlay announced today that they are partnering to create the world’s first interactive TV mobile entertainment portal; all previous mobile entertainment portals have been Web based. Under the terms of the partnership, PixelPlay will create a very sophisticated front end to Orion’s Mobile Entertainment Portal that will launch by the end of 2005 and will be far more interactive with wider choices for viewers. Further, it will enable subscribers to browse and listen to more than 5,000 entertainment options on their TVs and then download their selections to their cell phones including ring tones, images, music tones, animations, sound effects and Java games. The full range of mobile content available can be found at http://www.dishmobile.com.
“This partnership is a natural step in the growth of Orion,” said Kristian Gjerding, CEO of Orion Information Services. “During the past year we’ve signed agreements with major and select independent music publishing groups as well as numerous specialty content houses. These agreements license Orion to distribute a wide range of existing content as well as all new content as soon as it becomes available. Our alliance with PixelPlay puts a mechanism in place that satellite and cable networks can leverage to offer their subscribers mobile entertainment that is already in high demand.”
“Orion is the only company we found with the technology, management, and partnerships to ensure success in the use of ITV as a delivery channel for mobile entertainment,” said Ron Chaimowitz, CEO of PixelPlay. “We’re delighted to pioneer this new distribution channel with Orion which complements PixelPlay’s current distribution channels that already include Cablevision Systems Corporation, EchoStar, Bell Express Vu, MultiChoice, Vodafone, and GoGo on HOT Cable.”
The TV portal integrates both Web and WAP based outlets to enable users access from TV, the Internet and mobile phones. The WAP service is unique in this respect because it uses SMS as the initiator to drive advertising.
About Orion Information Services
Orion Information Services (OIS) is a cross media company delivering profitable, engaging mobile content and services. Founded in 2002, this new breed of company provides its partners with innovative interactive services designed to keep pace with the ever-changing mobile world. Its cross-media services combine traditional media (television, radio and print) with the Internet and mobile consumer devices, such as mobile phones or palmtop units, to connect consumers to an entirely new world of wireless services.
Headquartered in Miami Beach with offices in New York and LA, Orion is focused on the US and Latin American markets, and with a development office in Copenhagen, Denmark, Orion has secured access to the cutting edge wireless markets of the Nordic region. http://www.ois-inc.com
About PixelPlay
PixelPlay is a worldwide provider of brand-name games and entertainment for cross-platform play on interactive television, broadband, iPTV and mobile devices. It offers the best technology and iTV cross-platform game service operations by promoting the best games and entertainment brands in the marketplace. PixelPlay provides an unmatched offering and value proposition to cable and satellite TV operators around the world. PixelPlay’s core team has an 11-year track record in the games and entertainment industry with strong core R&D and operational and technology experience in iTV and the mobile space.
PixelPlay features licensed games from leading global brands such as Atari/Hasbro, The Tetris Company, Tribune's Jumble interactive crossword puzzles, Microsoft Games, RealArcade games, and many others. PixelPlay's catalog reads like a "who's who" of the world's top game brands. The company is a headquartered in New York and United Kingdom. http://www.pixelplay.com
Orion Press Contact:
Jan Wall
Orion Information Services
(250) 388-0865
jan@oismail.com
PixelPlay Press Contact:
Paulina Piekarski
Connors Communications
(212) 798-1407
Paulina@connors.com
| HURRICANE NEWS |
The Story of Hurricane Katrina
There are many stories to be told in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. For those of us in the paging industry, ours is an important one that illustrates the value our industry contributes to the country in times of crisis. We bear a critical responsibility to maintain our network integrity so that our customers, many of whom are emergency responders, can do the really important work of saving lives and preventing further disaster.
What follows is USA Mobility’s story of Hurricane Katrina to date. It details our preparation for the storm and the tireless efforts of our workforce to serve the needs of our customers—so they can, in turn, serve the needs of the community.
The Storm and Our Preparation
On Wednesday evening, August 24, 2005, the Network Operations Center (NOC), USA Mobility’s 24X7 technical monitoring group was discussing the possibility of a storm hitting the Florida coast. It was unclear at that time exactly where it was going to hit and how bad of a storm it would be. There were conversations with the field technical staff in Florida and we felt we were ready for the storm.
On Thursday evening, at 8:01 PM CT, Hurricane Katrina made landfall near Adventura, Florida with maximum sustained winds at 80 mph. It is moving slowly to the west at about 6 mph. There have been reports of wind gusts from 62 to 92 mph with some trees coming down in Broward and Miami-Dade Counties. The gusty winds have caused widespread power outages across southern Florida.
By midnight, Katrina had slightly weakened and by 2:00 AM CT, Friday morning, had moved into the Gulf of Mexico. As the day progressed, the NOC was happy that the storm was over and there was only minor damage to our paging systems. There were 26 outage tickets related to storm events and they were thinking that the worst was over and that Florida was in good shape as compared to some of the more recent storms that have hit that storm ravaged state.
The field technical staff had been working diligently on closing out work tickets related to the storm and they felt most of the work in Florida would be completed by Monday or Tuesday. No significant damage had occurred to any of USA Mobility’s facilities and that is the most that anyone could ask for after being hit by a hurricane.
The NOC continued to monitor the storm and was hoping that the storm would soon take a downward turn or gradually diminish its strength before hitting land again. By 10 PM CT, on Saturday evening the national weather bureau was categorizing Katrina as a Category 3 hurricane moving 7 MPH with winds near 115 MPH with higher gusts. Hurricane force winds extend outward up to 45 miles from the center and tropical force winds extend outward up to 160 miles. The NOC was beginning to worry that the storm was not going to weaken and there were hurricane warnings issued for the north central gulf coast from Morgan City, Louisiana eastward to the Alabama / Florida border including the City of New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain.
At 4:00 AM CST, Katrina becomes classified as a category 4 Hurricane and is moving toward the West-Northwest near 10 MPH. Maximum sustained winds are near 145 MPH with higher gusts. Winds extend 85 miles from the center and tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 185 miles.
The NOC is very concerned at this point and starts escalating warnings to various personnel that this is an “All hands on deck call!”
By 7:01 AM CT, Katrina is now classified as a category 5 hurricane and is 275 Mi SSE of the mouth of the Mississippi River moving WNW at 10 mph, winds are currently at 160 mph.
AT 9:23 AM CT, Vince Kelly, President and CEO of USA Mobility, sends out an email to IT and Engineering.
Team,
Obviously, this is a very dangerous storm and it looks like it is going to do a lot of damage. I realize we all have an enormous amount of work to do on …. However, our recovery from this storm will have to take top priority. Let’s bring our “A” game to this recovery. To the extent our technical or customer service departments need more financial resources they will be authorized. Overtime, travel, etc. is also clearly supported to get our networks back up and online. We can’t do a lot about loss of power, but we can provide temporary generators, COWS and other short-term solutions to bridge the gap while commercial power is restored. I have seen us recover from these events before and now that USA Mobility has come together as the best team ever in our industry, I know we can handle this. Lets show ‘em what we can do.
Vince
AT 10:35 AM CT, Mike Curd, VP of Engineering, responded with a plan to back up all paging terminals in the path of Katrina. He double-checked all generators and mobile two-way sites (COWS) for usability, where should they be staged away from the hurricane’s path and be ready to be deployed to key sites upon notice. Techs from adjacent regions are planned to be staged to assist and be deployed as necessary along with parts and equipment. There was a call at 11 AM CT for all appropriate parties.
At 4:01 PM CT, Mike Curd sent out an update to all senior management:
The Field Technical and Engineering teams have been working over the weekend to prepare for Hurricane Katrina. The key Team Leaders are the Divisional VPs of Engineering, Greg Hoss and Dave Foster. The RTMs in the strike zone are Greg Cartwright (Louisiana) and Mike Redd (Florida Panhandle and Mississippi). Please use the NOC as your primary contact point for these Team Leaders, as they will be mobile during this period and need to keep their cell phones available.
We have established toll free numbers that will route to several paging terminals in Plano, which will be programmed with over-dial service (7 or 10 digit, depending on the terminal) to support any terminal that has an extended outage. Backup databases for these terminals have been shipped to Plano. The numbers and their associated terminal databases, along with user instructions, will be posted on the internal Intranet as soon as the service is tested.
- All generators and COWs (Coverage on Wheels, or transmitter trailers) have been checked and are ready for deployment. These are positioned away from the coastal areas and will be assigned according to need once damage reports have been assessed and we are allowed access to the area. The team is instructed to support our networks in the following order:
1. Paging Terminals
2. Emergency Care sites (Hospitals, Government)
3. Key sites in cities
4. Suburban sites
5. Rural sites- Spare gasoline and Propane to fuel generators is on hand.
- One Technician is in a hotel in Metairie, LA and the others have been instructed to evacuate to a safe distance inland. Technicians for nearby areas (up to 500 miles) are on standby and will enter the area after we are allowed access.
- Staffing in the Terminal Support (CTOC) and Satellite Support teams will be enhanced to support field teams.
- Parts will be assembled in the Plano warehouse Monday and will be moved into staging areas in Shreveport, LA and Houston.
- A Conference Call to assess the damage reports and assign the first actions will be held tomorrow at 10 AM Central time. An update with those assignments will be sent after the call.
AT 4:43 PM CT, Vince Kelly, President and CEO of USA Mobility, sends out an email to all senior management:
Team,
At this point it looks like we are going to take a major hit in the early morning hours tonight and tomorrow. This storm has the potential to do major damage, both personal and property wise. Some of the more recent news reports indicate a strengthening and an epic consequence.
Your technical team has been monitoring the situation all weekend and keeping us up to date. They have held conference calls and organized their forces. They have distributed the attached action plan. The quality of this plan and the preparation behind it, speaks for itself. Our technicians are up to the task despite the huge workload they have incurred already this year due to integration goals and unexpected storms. Our customer service and finance department stand ready to provide resources and support.
At times like this we have to remind ourselves that USA Mobility is more than just a profitable wireless communications company. We provide mission critical communications for police, fire, rescue, hospital and government services, not to mention the many utilities and workers who are needed to respond.
Typically our biggest issue is loss of power to our switches and transmitters. We can’t do a lot about that, but we can move quickly to restore our signals once we have commercial power or drop in a COW where there is a dire need like a hospital or police department. We can also make alternative access arrangements using switch backups, over dial and rerouting.
Let’s all do our part to stand tall and make USA Mobility the wireless company that we can all be proud of. I can honestly say we have the best group of managers and dedicated employees I have ever been associated with. We have created a new culture of winners and we are on our way. Let’s not let this storm break our spirit. Let’s all rise to the occasion. Let’s get the job done.
At mid-day tomorrow we will hold a brief conference call after the technicians indicate to me they are ready with their initial assessment. I look forward to speaking with you all then.
Vince
At 7:00 PM CT, the center of Hurricane Katrina is located 130 miles south of the mouth of the Mississippi River. Katrina is a potentially catastrophic hurricane. Katrina is expected to make landfall as a category four or five. Katrina is moving at 11 MPH and sustained tropical storm force winds are already occurring over the SE Louisiana Coast. Maximum sustained winds are near 160 MPH with higher gusts. Winds extend up to 105 miles from the center and tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 230 miles.
The technical organization in Florida had been working diligently on outages from Southern Florida and had already closed 13 tickets. The rest of the field organization, engineering services, and the IT department are scrambling to get all of their bases covered.
At 7:16 PM CT, Dave Duclos, Sr. VP—IT & Engineering, sent out an email to all Corporate IT:
Please have your teams on "ready" mode just in case we need to help out due to the storm—I am also very concerned about the Jackson facility from a flooding and/or loss of network connectivity standpoint! We should be prepared to "fire up" the Sungard BOSS system if we end up with what could be a long-term outage in Jackson (let’s hope not)—Ghina and I will be responsible for that. Additionally, we need to assess all systems running in Jackson and determine a plan for recovery—we can discuss this tomorrow morning.
Sometime after 6:00 AM CT, Monday, August 29, 2005, Katrina made landfall again. There is nothing else to say; by now, all of you have seen the catastrophic damage that Katrina did from the moment she touched land between New Orleans and Biloxi; to northern Mississippi, Alabama, and the tornados she spawned in Georgia.
The Aftermath
I believe we all work in organizations that feel they are prepared for the worst and many of us feel like we can handle whatever is thrown our way. All of the preparation we could ever have imagined would not have been enough to minimize the amount of damage and turmoil created by Katrina, possibly the worst hurricane ever recorded.
USA Mobility’s entire staff has risen to the occasion to help in whatever way possible to do at least their share in helping out the general public. Our field technical staff is doing whatever it takes to repair, where possible, the many systems operated by USA Mobility for public safety, search and rescue, first responders, hospitals… In addition, temporary sites (COWS) have been put up in as many strategic locations to help FEMA and other organizations communicate as well as possible during the recovery period.
USA Mobility’s sales force is in contact with the State of Louisiana, hospitals, rescue agencies, law enforcement, FEMA, Homeland Security, and many other support organizations to offer help. So far, USA Mobility has supplied over 1,500 pagers in the last 48 hours to ease their communication needs.
A first hand account on the performance of paging in the Hurricane affected zone was sent in to Brad Dye’s Wireless Messaging Newsletter. As reported by Carter C. Blumeyer, a Communication Specialist with FEMA:
FYI I am with an Urban Search and Rescue for FEMA and with the cell and data service down and systems being flooded. I just want you and your readers know that ReFLEX is working fine and communications are flowing through the units! We are allowing people to send e-mails to loved ones to let them know they are alive and well. Again the critical use of the ReFLEX in the all the disaster situations I have been to (9/11 NYC, Ivan, Isabel and now Katrina!)
Our work will continue along the Gulf Coast for weeks, months and, in some areas, for years. What is interesting is that our work has already expanded beyond simply restoring the network to its pre-Katrina form. We are in daily contact with our customers and emergency response organizations of the state and federal government. The conversations go beyond restoring previous paging functionality into a new area of “What else can we do to help?” At all levels within USA Mobility—network operations, sales and customer support—our people are developing solutions for new ways to meet the unique needs presented in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In a situation like this, that is the greatest contribution that we can make to our customers and the community overall.
USA Mobility would like to offer its regrets to the people who have been affected by this act of nature and best wishes to them as they move on.
Sincerely,
Peter Barnett, COO, USA Mobility
SBC Puts Wi-Fi in Astrodome; T-Mobile Extends Free Wi-Fi
September 01, 2005
By Glenn Fleishman
Telecommunications’ firms are stepping up to the plate to help: I know there are many more stories about free cell phones and other offers of help, but I’ve only heard two about Wi-Fi. SBC will install Wi-Fi service in the Astrodome to aid public safety workers and media. (They’re also making 1,000 phones available.)
T-Mobile HotSpot has extended its free usage to Sept. 9 in areas affected in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi that still have power and other services.
Source: WNN Wi-Fi Net News
New Orleans radio system flooded
BY Bob Brewin
Published on Aug. 31, 2005
Operation of the New Orleans police radio system in the wake of Hurricane Katrina has been plagued not only by floodwaters but by a lack of natural gas to power generators.
Not only that, Louisiana State Police turned away repair technicians when they attempted to reach the city, according to an on-scene report the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International relayed to Federal Computer Week.
The report, contained in an e-mail Wednesday from Dominic Tusa, a communications consultant in Covington, La., to Willis Carter, chief of communications for the Shreveport, La. fire department said the New Orleans Police Department’s dispatch center on the second floor of police headquarters was flooded. The police were forced to relocate to the nearby Hilton Hotel.
Tusa said the police department’s citywide 800 MHz radio system functioned well during and immediately after the hurricane hit New Orleans, but since then natural gas service to the prime downtown transmitter site was disrupted and the generator was out. Transmitter sites for the police radio system “are also underwater with the rising water and [are] now disabled,” Tusa said.
Owners of the sites that housed police radio transmitters would not allow installation of liquefied petroleum gas tanks as a backup to piped gas, meaning generators did not have any fuel when the main lines were cut, Tusa said.
Radio repair technicians attempting to enter the city were turned away by the state police, even though they had letters from the city police authorizing their access, Tusa said.
In contrast to the problems in New Orleans, Tusa said the Harrison County, Miss., Department of Public Safety’s radio system, which serves Gulfport and Biloxi, remained fully operational throughout the storm and continued to operate afterward. He added that the system has experienced generator problems, “but those are being resolved as they crop up. “
Source: FCW.com
| READER'S COMMENTS |
The President of USA Mobility Writes From: Vince Kelly Brad, This e-mail I am forwarding gives you a small flavor of just a few situations we and our wonderful staff are dealing with. I would not want to make their actual names public, but the circumstances are unfortunately common to many right now. We are obviously making special arrangements to support these folks. This storm was a terrible event and it’s going to take people a long time to get their lives back in order. Vince From: xxxxxx xxxxx
I spoke with her sales manager this morning and he is in touch with her via direct connect. She has a place to stay but it turns out there is no water. I suggested they find an apartment or temporary quarters far enough away that they have water and power, even if it means a bit of a drive to deal with their house for the short term. We'll have the landlord/property owner direct bill us as you requested. We're also going to make sure we hook up with xxx xxxxxxx today and get him into a place to stay and find out what the situation is with his home. Finally, we'll be touching base with all of the remaining New Orleans employees today (if possible), find out what they need, and get them headed to Dallas, Houston or Pensacola so they can get into temporary housing and (hopefully soon) back to work. Another idea being kicked around is to set up a vacation/sick leave bank that employees can contribute to and that affected employees can use to keep being paid while they deal with their home circumstances when they are allowed back into the area (in New Orleans, that could be months from now). This isn't something we have to do this minute since all are being paid through next week, but I think it's a great idea and a way for employees to contribute. Meanwhile, xxxxx xxxxxx has an account ready that we can put funds into for disbursement to employees affected by the hurricane. If you want to discuss any of this or feel we are heading in the wrong direction, give me a buzz at xxxxx. Thanks, xxxx Needs Help With PURC 5000 From: stephen@1s.net Brad, I ran across your site and it has been very informative. I was wondering if you could point me in a direction on a little problem I have. A customer of mine has been changing some paging stations out to the PURC 5000 with advanced control for a pseudo-simulcast setup. Some of the used units they have obtained give the message 'No Delay Option' when trying to enable the delay line even though the parts are on the TRN7337 board. Do you know where I could go to find out how to enable this option? Thanks in advance for your help. Stephen — Ron Mercer Writes Hi Brad, I was very encouraged to read Carter Blumeyer’s evaluation of the performance of ReFLEX service in disaster recovery situations. After several months evaluating a variety of “first responder” systems, some less and some more sophisticated (e.g. POCSAG 1-Way, Broadband Networks, MESH Networks etc.) I too have become convinced that ReFLEX offers the best balance between functionality and cost. Greater functionality is possible with some systems, but at a much higher cost and often with other serious shortcomings (e.g. in-building coverage). Lower cost systems are also possible, but with greatly reduced functionality, security and performance (e.g. one-way alphanumeric paging). ReFLEX is a proven technology and new sources of ReFLEX equipment are now commercially available. We should be taking every opportunity and making every effort to educate the homeland security community with regard to the advantages ReFLEX brings to their operations. Best regards as always and keep up the good work. Ron Mercer Telephone Answering Services Helping Their Own in Devastated Areas From: aosgood@streamline-solutions.net Hi Brad, The below message(s) are concerning the ATSI user organization's effort to assist with the Gulf Coast Disaster. The NAEO (National Amtelco Equipment Owners) group has stepped up to the plate and created a website for messaging industry members to assist their own in devastated areas. Can you help spread the word? Thanks! Aaron D. Osgood Streamline Solutions L.L.C TEL: 207-781-5561 -----Original Message----- From: On Behalf Of John Ratliff Listserve Box Gary, NAEO is accepting and distributing donations regardless or platform or users group affiliation. I will forward and email that contains instructions on how to nominate an employee as a potential fund recipient. We felt that we wanted to get something started right away since time was critical. It is open to anyone that wants to contribute, and anyone that wants to apply for benefits. Thanks, -----Original Message----- John & Joe, As TASCOM users, I don't believe there is a TUG group anymore, at least not that I'm aware of. Would this therefore something that would be organized through CAM-X or can one participate through NAEO despite not using Amtelco equipment. The Canadian Gary, eh? Gary Blair -----Original Message---- From: John Ratliff Listserve Box Vicki, You are right about the need for an industry wide fund. The Board of NAEO has made arrangements to set up such a fund. Our plan is to disburse funds based on the recommendations of owners for frontline staff. We are not using platform or user group membership as criteria. Our goal was to create an industry-wide fund. Details are as follows: The answering service and call center operators of the gulf coast have suffered dearly. Apparently we don't even know the extent yet. There is testimony already of a TAS worker's entire home and contents being lost. Let's not let her face this alone, or with only help from strangers. Let us answer her often repeated "how may I help you?" with our own "what can we do for you?" Let us make monetary donations to benefit the hourly answering service workers of the gulf coast. Go to www.naeo.org/relief.php to pledge a cash donation or to make a credit card donation. Unfortunately, there are no bone fide charities that benefit hourly answering service workers directly, so the donations you make will not be assured tax deductible status. But we can't let them deal with this alone. Every dime of your donation will go directly to hourly workers in the affected area. Award recipients will be nominated for consideration by their owners or managers. Unpaid volunteer committee members will consider the nominations and disburse funds in $100 amounts. The judgment of the committee will be final and will be based on their best effort to balance need and the quantity of people that we can help. I will report the progress to the naeo membership. Other associations are invited to participate. If other organizations participate they will be encouraged to do committee work, too. If there is an excess of donations, they will be disbursed to a bone fide charity on 12/30/2005 for disaster relief. I endured disastrous flooding with hurricane Floyd. Dealing with it was a lonely proposition. And it was pretty much over with within weeks. These people are going to need a much longer time to regain their normal lives. Please join the rest of us and try your best to give relief. As of 9 PM, the website is under construction, but it works! www.naeo.org/relief.php On behalf of your NAEO board, Joe Miller, VP Brad, Thank you for issuing the August 30th News Bulletin with the note from Carter Blumeyer, a member of an Urban Search and Rescue team for FEMA in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, about his ability to let survivors send e-mails to loved ones using the narrowband PCS network while cellphones, landlines, and other data services were inoperable. < |
this is all the explanation needed.
