89 Percent of Cell Sites Still Down in Puerto Rico

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WASHINGTON—Puerto Rico is still struggling with the aftermath of Hurricane Maria as a report from the FCC reveals that as of Oct. 1 88.8 percent of cell site across the U.S. territory are down. The information comes from DIRS, which is still activated for all counties in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

All counties in Puerto Rico except for Bayamon, Guaynabo and San Juan have more than 75 percent of their cell sites out of service. Twenty-seven out of 78 counties have 100 percent of their cell sites out of service.

The numbers are slightly better in the U.S. Virgin Islands, as 68.9 percent of cell sites are down; though 100 percent of cell sites are out of service in St. John.

A number of TV stations are also still out of service, including WIPR in San Juan, PR, and WIPM in Mayaguez, PR. This is in addition to the 22 AM/FM stations that are still down. WKAQ-TV and Telemundo virtual Ch.2 UHF 28 are being reported as on air.

Reports also indicate that a large number of consumers are without either cable services or wireline service. Puerto Rico reports that at least 11 switches are out of service due to either SS7 or toll isolation.

In addition, the main Public Safety Answering Point in Puerto Rico is offline. 911 calls are being sent to the back-up PSAP in Puerto Rico. The U.S. Virgin Islands have reported its 911 Call Center to be completely shut down and is unable to retrieve Phase I or Phase II location information for wireless callers and ANI/ALI for VoIP callers.