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Hurricane Gustav | Cellular South Information Center

Hurricane Gustav Updates

 

    Cellular South opened all retail store locations on Tuesday in storm-impacted areas with normal business hours.  These locations also are offering the public free phone calls and access to cell phone charging stations.


Cellular South Manages Increased Call Volumes Caused By Hurricane Gustav

Delivers 46 Million Minutes of Use On Network In Storm-Impacted Areas

Cellular South's Network Operations Control Center

Network operations center at company headquarters building in Ridgeland, Mississippi, where technicians monitor and manage Cellular South's wireless telecommunications network

Cellular South's wireless communications network experienced a surge in traffic in the last 72 hours as residents and emergency responders prepared for Hurricane Gustav, which made landfall Monday about 70 miles southwest of New Orleans.

A summary of Cellular South's network performance, its coordination with local and state emergency response agencies and storm resources is provided below:

NETWORK

    We handled a Dramatic increase in call volumes from Gulf Coast customers without significant problems.

  • Logged 46 million minutes of use by customers in the storm-impacted areas over the last three days, which is a dramatic increase in normal call volume
  • Almost 99% of the company’s network is operational in the impacted areas with very minor customer impact
  • Due to infrastructure preparation and investments, the network continues to handle high volumes of voice calls and data usage from hurricane and storm-impacted areas without significant issues
  • The microwave ring built along the Mississippi Gulf Coast and Hattiesburg areas after Hurricane Katrina helped deliver calls to their final destination in areas where traditional land-line service was impacted by the storm
  • Network and engineering crews with additional back up power sources and mobile units were dispatched immediately to the storm-impacted areas

 

RESPONSE

    Cellular South Supported state and local emergency response efforts and donated phones, service and food.

  • Company representatives assigned to the Mississippi Emergency Operations Center continued to respond to requests for wireless communications assistance from local and state government and emergency response agencies, including the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency and the office of Gov. Haley Barbour
  • Cellular South is the official wireless communications carrier for all state agencies and employees in Mississippi
  • Company has provided hundreds of mobile phones and service to local and state emergency response agencies and the American Red Cross
  • Cellular South is donating $10,000 worth of food and supplies to the Salvation Army to help storm-impacted residents who were evacuated to shelters


Cellular South provides the network you can count on. 

After Hurricane Katrina, Cellular South was the first and only means of communication for many.  To further reinforce our commitment to customers on the Gulf Coast,  following Katrina, we built a data network to provide reliable Mobile Web service for times when other Internet service is down because of hurricanes or other storms. 

Cellular South invested overall $ 15 million in it's coastal network infrastructure after Katrina, including a state-of-the-art microwave ring. This advanced technology helps circumvent damaged or destroyed landline systems and gives Cellular South customers the best chance of calls being routed to their final destination.

 


Sign up for text message alerts from the Mississippi Emergency Management Association.
 

You may call MEMA's Public Information Line for storm information at 1-888-519-6362,
or visit MEMA's Web site at msema.org

 

 Track Gustav on your mobile phone