California Counties Seek Better Telecom Prep for Power Shutoffs

California county officials said telecom carriers should improve backup systems, after public safety power shutoffs (PSPS) caused outages: Wireless carriers should install backup generators that last days rather than rely on batteries lasting hours. Some had wireline outages although their homes had power. The California Public Utilities Commission has concerns.

“Many lost their telecommunications access for an extended period during the planned shutoff” of power to stave off further wildfires in the state, emailed Calvin Sandeen, Sonoma County Economic Development Board broadband project coordinator. “In some instances, residents had power to their homes or businesses but limited telecommunications services, based on their primary network locations.” He cited Comcast.

County staff is working with wireless companies “to install backup generators that can last several days,” Sandeen said. “Cellular providers have been installing 190-Gallon diesel generators at their sites with road access to refuel if needed.” The county library is getting 200 more Wi-Fi hot spots next month; 95 percent of 500 were checked out in the recent outage, he said. Sonoma County's population is about 500,000.

“The shutoff had significant and dangerous impacts on many areas of Santa Cruz County but especially in the rural areas,” emailed Second District Supervisor Zach Friend of the municipality with about 274,000 population. “Rural residents lost all forms of communication including cell, phone and internet as a result of the shutoff. ... PG&E communicated that power would be shut off but not the extent or duration or that secondary lifeline services (like phone and cell) that would be impacted.” The bankrupt utility under CPUC scrutiny has been doing the shutoffs, with reported complaints it didn't adequately notify the public or government officials.

Telecom providers should “ensure all of their customers understand that this is a possible outcome,” improve backup systems to maintain emergency communications and set up satellite locations as further backup, “where people could go for services and information,” Friend said.

New Normal?

Knowing batteries at many cellsites last four-12 hours, Marin County quickly sent information to residents about the power cuts, a county spokesperson told us. Some cell towers along U.S. highway 101 had backup generators and stayed on, so people near them had “not great but OK” coverage, she said. Other areas of the county, with about 260,000 population, had spotty or no coverage.

The FCC highlighted Marin as having the highest proportion of cellsites out this week (see 1910280050). “If this is the new normal for California, I would hope cellphone carriers are taking a hard look at not only extending battery life” but deploying more fuel-based backup generators so cellsites can last days, the county spokesperson said.

Some Cameron Park residents with power nonetheless had two-day landline and internet outages with AT&T, emailed Shiva Frentzen, El Dorado County supervisor-District 2. The locality's population is about 191,000. “Their service was restored with the County-wide power recovery." Residents who contacted AT&T customer service learned service calls were being scheduled for a week later. That's likely because the outage affected the telco's facility, she said. The company didn’t comment.

“It seems counter-intuitive that PG&E is in everyone’s cross hairs for intentionally shutting down the service its customers depend on but” telecom providers “can do basically the same thing (admittedly at a much lower level) and hide,” said a joint statement by North Bay emergency managers from Lake, Marin, Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties, which are part of the coastal region of the California Office of Emergency Services. “We have been discussing this for many years, intensifying after the 2017 fires, and they continue to make huge profits off of their customers without any kind of an emergency response/assistance commitment.”

“It is unfortunate that there is no requirement for the wireless providers to either report their status, nor provide lists of numbers to be imported into tele-notification systems as the wireline providers are,” particularly as wireless and VoIP increasingly replace landlines, the emergency managers said. There's no such requirement for VoIP providers, they said. The emergency managers plan to raise these issues with the CPUC and FCC.

CPUC

The CPUC “is very concerned about the resiliency of the communications network in California and understands how critical it is for the people impacted by power shut-offs and fires,” a spokesperson emailed. That commission is communicating with the FCC, “to make sure that the FCC is aware of the communication industry’s response to power shut-offs and fires.”

The CPUC will open a formal investigation into this year’s PSPS events and utility rule compliance, the commission said Monday. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) urged “total reform of power shutoff rules and regulations.” He launched a response website and committed $75 million for state and local governments to fund backup communications equipment and other mitigations (see 1910250061).

“We work every day to deploy and maintain wireless networks to serve those impacted by the dangerous California wildfires,” said Wireless Infrastructure Association CEO Jonathan Adelstein. “The wireless industry stands ready to work with California officials to ensure proper redundancy that would keep networks operational when they are most needed and serve the interests of public safety and the broader community."

Wireless "providers invest significant resources to strengthen and harden networks so that they are able to maintain service during emergencies," a CTIA spokesperson emailed Wednesday. "Wireless providers coordinate closely with public safety officials and power companies to deploy resources to restore connectivity as soon as it is safe."

“There is, understandably, a lot of confusion and even frustration when folks have power but no Comcast services,” its spokesperson emailed. “We are trying to educate folks that when PG&E creates power outages of this unprecedented scope and scale, there are widespread disruptions to our services because we require commercial power to operate.” Comcast blogged Oct. 23 along those lines.

Outages

The FCC extended disaster information reporting system collection to five more California counties, bringing the number to 37, the agency said Wednesday. The FCC added Alameda, Mendocino, Plumas, Siskiyou and Trinity counties.

Carriers report 1.8 percent of cellsites out of service due to the power shutoffs, the same as Tuesday, said Wednesday’s report by the FCC Public Safety Bureau. Out-of-service cellsites in Marin County dropped to 5.2 percent from 35.4 percent the previous day. Calaveras (18.6 percent) and Sonoma (16.5 percent) counties had the most cellsites out.

Cable and wireline companies reported about 173,000 subscribers with outages, about 51,000 fewer than the day before. Radio outages also decreased, with 13 FM stations out of service, down from 21 Tuesday, and one AM outage, down from three. Three other FMs were out of service but sending programming to another station, up from two the day before.

Editor's note: This is Part II of an occasional series on the effects of California wildfires on communications networks. In Part I, advocates sought additional telecom battery backup (see 1910110008).