Aerial view of Beach Road on Siesta Key days after Hurricane Milton
Aerial video shows conditions on Siesta Key, Florida, after Hurricane Milton.
The landfall of Hurricane Milton last week left nearly 3 million Floridians without internet or cell service in the wake of the Category 3 storm that ripped through the state.
As major internet and wireless carriers work to restore service in Sarasota, Manatee and other affected areas, the Federal Communications Commission announced last week in its Disaster Information Reporting System that 12.3% of cell sites reported that they were out of service in the Florida areas affected by Hurricane Milton.
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Service providers are working to get networks and Wi-Fi back online, along with the thousands of electrical engineers and tradespeople, to restore power to those still without it a week after the storm. According to data carrier reports to the FCC, more than 1.27 million subscribers were out of service in the disaster areas after Hurricane Milton.
Here is the status of recovery progress for internet and cell phone providers in Florida:
Spectrum
More than 2,000 Spectrum technicians and engineers made significant progress overnight in restoring service to customers affected by Hurricane Milton. As of Monday, 410,000 Floridians were still without power and about 367,000 Spectrum customers were without service.
As of Monday evening, Spectrum reported that more than half of customers in Manatee County had been restored. Nearly 70% of Manatee County customers, about 38,900, had internet, according to Spectrum’s outage tracker. Spectrum had restored 103,709 customers, including about 70% of its customers in Pinellas County.
Spectrum leaders expect to have a large percentage of customers back online by mid-week. Spectrum customers can track the progress of the restoration here: Spectrum Restoration Progress Tracker
In addition to restoring services, Spectrum has made monetary donations to nonprofits dedicated to Hurricane Milton recovery efforts. On October 11, Spectrum announced a $400,000 disaster donation to three charities, including a $100,000 cash contribution to the Volunteer Florida Foundation. These contributions are in addition to $1 million in support of states affected by Hurricane Helene in late September.
Border communication
Frontier reports that 88% of its fiber internet customers were back online on Monday. However, reclaiming electric power is the biggest challenge to connecting the remaining percentage of Frontier customers.
“We expect customers who are still out of service to have internet service restored once commercial power is restored. We are proud to report that, thanks to the efforts of our teams since the hurricane made landfall and the resilience of our fiber internet, can now resume installation for new customers throughout Florida,” said Chrissy Murray, Frontier’s vice president of communications.
In Frontier’s coverage area in Sarasota and Manatee counties, most of the customer base has switched to Frontier Fiber, a weatherproof technology that is buried underground. This reduces the chance of damage to the cables and increases the chance that they can withstand the storm, Murray said.
Customers can continue to monitor the outage status of Frontier Internet services on their website here: https://frontier.com/helpcenter/internet/troubleshooting/check-for-service-outages
Verizon
As of Monday, Verizon reports that about 85% of affected cell sites are back online in much of Manatee, DeSoto, Hardee, Charlotte, Lee and Orange counties, as well as the Venice and Rotunda Park areas of Sarasota County.
The national wireless carrier saw significant outages due to damaged cables in areas affected by Hurricane Milton after the storm, particularly southern Sarasota County and much of Polk County. So much so that two days after Milton’s landfall, Verizon officials issued a statement addressing the outage and service issues in a social media post and a press release on Friday.
“We recognize that there are still customers impacted by service. With widespread power outages throughout Florida, many cell sites are operating on backup power as designed, and large-scale fueling operations are underway to ensure that sites without commercial power will remain in use for Verizon’s first responder customers,” a news release said.
The Verizon Community Resources team set up a charging and fueling station for South Sarasota residents Monday at the Englewood Walmart at 2931 S McCall Rd, Englewood. Wireless Emergency Communications Centers are generator-powered mobile units that have device charging and cellular Internet and Wi-Fi to contact friends, family and other important contacts over the Verizon network.
In addition, the Verizon Foundation has contributed a total of $2 million in donations to the Milton and Helene relief and recovery efforts.
From Oct. 9 to Oct. 23, Verizon said it will waive domestic calling, texting and data usage for postpaid consumers and Verizon Small Business customers in affected Florida counties.
T-Mobile
Less than 5% of T-Mobile customers saw major service outages immediately after Hurricane Milton, media representatives report. According to the outage tracker, only about 2% of T-Mobile customers were without power or service so far.
T-Mobile’s for Business and Government team continues to work with federal, state and local agencies and Florida State Emergency Operations Center officials to identify priorities and support needs in Sarasota, Hillsborough and Lee, other affected counties.
Immediately following the storm, T-Mobile deployed and refueled more than 600 generators and activated SatCOLTs (Satellite Cell on Light Truck) in Venice and at the Walmart in Zephyrhills to support local law enforcement and provide connectivity for the local community.
AT&T
AT&T has donated $100,000 to Florida Volunteer to assist with Hurricane Milton relief efforts since the storm made landfall on October 9.
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The wireless carrier had placed generators at locations in Florida before Hurricane Milton to respond to the storm. Several critical cell locations across AT&T network equipment were affected above expected flood levels before the storm hit Florida. AT&T said it is waiving fees for residential and business phone orders placed now through November 8.
