AT&T said today it is completing preparations to help ensure that its local, long distance and data networks will withstand Hurricane Isabel with minimal customer impact and that its one-of-a-kind Network Disaster Recovery capability is on alert and ready to restore service following any storm damage.
The company also advised people in the path of the storm to make a communications back-up plan just as they would stock up on bottled water and put plywood over windows.
"AT&T's highly-resilient network is architected, engineered and operated to protect our customers' service. Its Internet Data Centers and voice and packet data switching centers are housed in buildings designed to withstand the most adverse conditions," said Reed Harrison, AT&T's senior vice president of network engineering and operations. "All of these facilities are equipped with two levels of emergency back-up power. In addition, the vast majority of AT&T's fiber optic cable is buried several feet underground and so is protected from the ravages of bad weather."
However, the company warned people in the storm's path that while AT&T's network is expected to suffer only minimal impact, there may be traffic congestion in the public network. AT&T recommends that residents in the path of Hurricane Isabel establish an emergency contact point outside the region. A relative or close friend in the Midwest or West could fulfill that role. All it will take is a single status-report call to that person, and he or she can then share the information with family and friends nationwide, calling a phone list that could be established before the storm.
If commercial power is lost at any AT&T data or voice center, large batteries in each facility automatically pick up the load instantly. If the power remains down for several minutes, diesel generators automatically fire up and begin supplying power to network equipment, cooling and lights. All generators have several days supply of diesel fuel, and refueling contracts are in place.
"During this summer's blackout in the Northeast and Midwest, more than 100 AT&T network buildings were operating on emergency back-up power systems, the largest and most widespread use of emergency back-up power in the history of the AT&T network," said Harrison. "Our emergency power systems performed near-flawlessly during the blackout, and there was minimal customer impact."
In the event that any AT&T Internet, data or voice centers are damaged by the storm, the AT&T Network Disaster Recovery team will spring into action.
Since 1992, AT&T has invested more than $300 million in its network disaster recovery program, which includes a fleet of 150 tractor-trailer trucks and support vehicles that carry every type of equipment needed to restore all data and voice services. Unique in the telecommunications industry, these vehicles are staged nationwide and can arrive anywhere in the continental United States within 24 hours.
This equipment is supported by a team of more than 100 highly-trained network managers and technicians who are always on call and ready to respond within two hours of an alert. The team conducts quarterly drills to keep their skills sharp, and such a drill is being conducted this week in Boston.
When the drill in Boston ends Wednesday afternoon, the small subset of all of our trucks that are in Boston will quickly pack up and move to staging sites near the areas affected by Hurricane Isabel. Meanwhile, the remaining trucks not being used in Boston are already on alert status and ready to respond.
The team's goal is to restore service within 72 hours, but following the World Trade Center attacks two years ago when AT&T's local business network in southern Manhattan was severely damaged, the equipment was ready to receive traffic in 50 hours.
Since it was established in 1992, the Network Disaster Recovery team has been activated 12 times. Its first deployment was to restore service in south Florida following the devastating effects of Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
If any buried fiber optic cables are damaged by flooding or earth slides during Hurricane Isabel, AT&T's network has been engineered with intelligence that automatically reroutes traffic around any failed cables. Should there be any damage to an AT&T Internet Data Center, where the company offers an array of Web hosting, business continuity and storage services, the company's integrated Global Enterprise Management System (iGEMS) will detect any problems. The iGEMS platform was developed by AT&T Labs and the company has invested more than $200 million in the system.