WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Wi-Fi and cellphone coverage remain spotty throughout South Florida and other locations along Hurricane Irma's path. There's a simple reason: Like everyone else, the companies that provide it don't have power, thanks to the storm.
Cell towers across Florida have been cut off from the power grid and are relying on generators to keep going, spokespeople for two of the four major wireless carriers said.
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“The faster the power comes back on, the faster all telecommunication services can get back on,” a T-Mobile spokeswoman said Tuesday. “The power outages are just everywhere. It’s definitely causing a lot of effect across the board.”
For Comcast, the main provider of Wi-Fi in Palm Beach County, it’s a similar story.
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“Many of our facilities in Palm Beach County, and virtually all of them in Broward County and further south in Miami-Dade, are functioning on generators due to the complete loss of commercial power,” Comcast spokeswoman Mindy Kramer said.
Physical damage to cell towers doesn't appear to be an issue. Towers are meant to withstand high winds.
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“It’s really rare to see a tower topple over,” said Roni Singleton, a Sprint spokeswoman for Florida.
But because of the power outages, the lack of coverage right now is worse in South Florida, and — bizarrely — much worse than Houston recently experienced despite that city’s massive flooding from Hurricane Harvey.
“There was really very little loss of mobile service in Houston, across all carriers,” the T-Mobile spokeswoman said. “Houston was able to maintain power the entire time.”
Cell towers are required to have batteries that provide eight to 12 hours of power for first responders, the T-Mobile spokeswoman said. After that, they rely on generators for power. But fallen trees and debris have made it difficult to refuel some of the generators, she said.
Verizon said close to 90 percent of its facilities were working, with many running on backup generators.
“Massive refueling operations are underway to ensure those sites without commercial power continue in service for our customers and first responders,” the company said in a statement.
Sprint and Comcast said they’re sending satellite trucks and mobile platforms to South Florida to provide temporary coverage until power returns. AT&T said it was sending portable cell sites to the Keys, Miami and Tallahassee.
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None of the companies would give a time frame for when full coverage would return, but T-Mobile and Sprint said coverage was getting better by the hour.
“I think by [Wednesday], we’ll see a huge improvement in the number of sites that are back up,” Singleton said.