Internet, phone providers prep networks as Tropical Storm Lala looms

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Internet and phone providers are gearing up for Tropical Storm Lala.

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Over the last week, Jason Thune, vice president of Hawaiian Telcom, said his team has been making sure generators were topped off, and that he has teams ready to go if there’s an outage.

“We also made sure that our employees have the right protective equipment to work out in a post-storm condition,” Thune said.

Hawaiian Telcom made sure to move up upgrades on critical infrastructure following the Kona low storms in March, especially before this El Nino-charged hurricane season. If there is an outage, Thune assured that restoration is prioritized.

Thune said they want to make sure key places, such as shelters or hospitals, take precedence over residential neighborhoods.

Phone providers also talked about their preparations for the storm.

AT&T reminded the public of their deployable assets that are available to assist first responders whenever there’s a disaster in Hawaii.

T-Mobile extended T-Satellite with Starlink access across Hawaii to give compatible devices access to continue to call if terrestrial connectivity goes down.

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Verizon said all of their cell towers are built to withstand hurricane-force winds, and all cell sites are engineered with a battery backup. Associate Director of Network Operations at Verizon Corey Shaffer said they’re well-prepared for the upcoming storm.

“We’ve refueled all those generators. We’ve performed our half a year of maintenance,” Shaffer said. “Making sure all the batteries start, all the generators start, the batteries are charged, everything.”

Shaffer also mentioned the Verizon team has a fleet of portable generators they can deploy out to several of their cell tower sites if power outages continue past eight hours. Most cell sites on Hawaii island and Maui have permanent generators installed, saying the portable generators are good for sites with tighter spaces such as urban Honolulu.

“You need two things for a cell site to work, power and connectivity to the outside world, whether that’s through fiber or microwave or satellite,” Shaffer said.

“But those are the two things that we are really focused on, having backup power options and having backup connectivity options in terms of backhaul.”

To prepare for outages, officials say to make sure all your devices are charged and that you’re signed up for wireless emergency alerts for the most updated information.

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