T-Mobile is preparing for extreme weather and other natural disasters by creating year-round emergency response teams to support customers as well as first responders. The company is rolling out a number of network and safety measures to decrease overwhelmed networks impacted by emergencies to increase recovery speed.
“T-Mobile’s teams have worked year-round to ensure our leading 5G network is available when the customers and communities we service need it most, bolstering redundancy and hardening our footprint as we maximize coverage and capacity nationwide. Following disasters our network and community support teams will also be ready to deploy cutting-edge response assets – vehicles, 5G drones, command centers, and other tools – that will deliver connectivity, Wi-Fi, and other supplies to local residents and first responders,” said Ulf Ewaldsson, T-Mobile’s President of Technology.
As outlined in an article posted by T-Mobile earlier today, the new measures include:
- Increasing investments in network hardening by more than 30% over the past two years to reduce service interruptions, adding fixed backup generators at critical sites nationwide.
- Adding 50% more heavy-duty disaster response satellite vehicles to its ready-to-respond fleet.
- Expanding its community support fleet with new, fully loaded RV command centers and heavy-duty Wi-Fi vehicles.
- Partnering with Pano AI and Valmont on innovative 5G emergency response.
- Participating in specialized training exercises and community events.
T-Mobile’s new features help first responders by using the company’s innovations to alert technicians and engineers to make adjustments to critical sites nationwide to focus signals on impacted areas, giving them first priority while not disrupting customers’ connections. This tactic grants first responders the bandwidth necessary for conducting search and rescue measures more efficiently.
Emergency personnel with Wireless Priority Service get priority access and preemption for voice as well as priority access for data automatically, and with no additional fees. T-Mobile is also releasing 50 percent more “heavy-duty network disaster response vehicles” called Satellite Cell-On-Wheels and Satellite Cell-On-Light-Trucks.
Adding to the disaster response vehicle models are the new Classic Super C RV Command Centers to manage operations on-site in disaster areas. T-Mobile is adding some new heavy-duty community support trucks to the rescue team. These trucks will be installed with the capability to keep devices charged and are WiFi accessible.
As part of T-Mobile’s partnership with Pano Al, the company can utilize the 5G network to scan for early signs of wildfires using UHD cameras and AI platforms, providing faster response times to avert disaster.
Valmont has also partnered up with T-Mobile’s network to create the “longest ever beyond visual line of site drone flights for infrastructure inspection,” boasting 77 miles. Valmont’s drones can now monitor power lines, railroads, and bridges in Texas to identify potential malfunctions and prevent infrastructure-related disasters.
Read more about T-Mobile’s latest upgrades by visiting the company’s Emergency Response Hub.