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TECHNOLOGY Monday 4 SepteMber 2017

So far, cellphone networks have weathered Harvey

By ANICK JESDANUN to the FCC. Some 911 cen-
AP Technology Writer ters had to transfer calls to
NEW YORK (AP) — Roads, neighboring centers, while
refineries and other infra- some television stations lost
structure have taken a broadcast capabilities.
beating in the Texas and Here’s a look at communi-
Louisiana regions hit by Har- cations in the affected re-
vey — but cellphone net- gions.
works so far remain largely CELLPHONE SERVICES
functional. All told, the devastating
One reason: Big carriers storm knocked out fewer
brought in supplemen- than 400 of the 7,804 cell
tal equipment and back- towers in the affected
up power and turned to counties; just 296 were
drones to diagnose prob- down as of Thursday. By
lems. contrast, Hurricane Katrina
Four Gulf Coast counties disabled more than 1,000
northeast of Corpus Christi, cell towers in 2005.
Texas, had more than half Cell towers typically have
of their cell towers knocked backup batteries and gen-
out earlier in the week, but erators so they can keep
crews have been able to operating in a power out- In this Monday, Aug. 28, 2017, file photo, Rhonda Worthington talks on her cellphone with a 911
dispatcher as she gets out of her car after her vehicle become stalled in rising floodwaters from
restore many of them. As of age. The problem comes Harvey in Houston.
Thursday, one of the most when generators run out of Associated Press
heavily hit areas, Aransas fuel. Verizon spokeswoman
County, reported 32 per- Karen Schulz said crews to temporarily bridge those As of Thursday, only 7 of the have since been restored.
cent of its 28 towers out. prepared by topping off all gaps. region’s 911 centers were The bigger problem is call
That’s down from 95 per- generators ahead of the Verizon and AT&T have out of service, all in Texas, volume. Many callers in the
cent right after the week- storm. The company also both sent out drones to as- although all were able to Houston area were placed
end’s storm, according bought spare fuel and had sess damage at cell towers. reroute calls to neighboring on hold until a dispatcher
to data from the Federal refueling trucks on standby Crews are still necessary call centers. was free, said Trey Forgety
Communications Commis- at key locations. for repairs, but the drone That’s down from 11 on of the nonprofit National
sion. Throughout the af- In a few cases, there’s been inspections allow compa- Wednesday. Emergency Number Asso-
fected region, slightly less damage to the fiber lines nies to determine whether Four of those centers still ciation. In a few cases, call-
than 4 percent of cell tow- that connect cell towers to a tower simply needs refu- aren’t able to get callers’ ers got busy signals.
ers were out. communications centers. eling or requires extensive location information auto- “We’re part of the tele-
While cellphone services In such cases, it might be repair. Cellphone compa- matically, which can be a phone era, so if you want
fared well, hundreds of possible to get a signal, but nies also sent truck-based problem if the caller is un- to move calls around (to
thousands of people lost the data isn’t going any- mobile cell towers to areas able to speak. Earlier in the neighboring centers), you
landline or other wired where. Schulz said Verizon needing greater capacity. week, two centers were have to go physically re-
phone services, according has microwave technology EMERGENCY SERVICES down completely, but both wire things,” he said.q

Putin: Leader in artificial intelli-

gence will rule world

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian Presi- opment of AI raises “colossal opportuni-
dent Vladimir Putin says that who- ties and threats that are difficult to pre-
ever reaches a breakthrough in dict now.”
developing artificial intelligence He warned that “the one who becomes
will come to dominate the world. the leader in this sphere will be the ruler
Putin, speaking Friday at a meet- of the world.”
ing with students, said the devel- Putin warned that “it would be strongly
undesirable if someone wins a monopo-
Russian President Vladimir Putin list position” and promised that Russia
speaks at a meeting with students would be ready to share its know-how in
in Yaroslavl, Russia, Friday, Sept. artificial intelligence with other nations.q
1, 2017.
Associated Press