September 20th, 2017 will be a date that will be remembered for a long time by many. To some, it was a day of tragedy, for me it was a date for maturity. Maturity, because Hurricane Maria was the "test of fire" for our company. The worst that could happen, happened and it depended on everyone as a team to overcome it. And we did!
If anything Hurricane Maria taught us was that our
"infatuation" with fiber optics connectivity needed some revision. Many
don't know the fact that wireless technology saved the day after the
hurricane. Even if many did not noticed! Several companies like ours
provided wireless Internet and data services to many critical operations
including the Disaster Management Center at Centro de Convenciones, critical
connectivity for Evertec / ATH, Hacienda, FEMA, US Army Corp. of Engineers,
among many even including connecting cellular towers for mobile service.
As of May 10th 2018 Sin Comillas, a local business news outlet, reported that the local cable provider customer base was 80% up. Not to kick a dead horse,
but this puts forward the fragility of wireline networks. Our customer
base was 80% up just 8 weeks after the hurricane. I use this example to
highlight the true advantage of a wireless based infrastructure. Although
is not Hurricane proof, it can be reestablished far quicker than wireline.
At the 2018 Puerto Rico IT Cluster: CIO & ITLeadership Conference, I was able to participate in a panel where the effects of hurricane Maria on the telecom
infrastructure on Puerto Rico were discussed. Lessons learned and next steps to
be taken were among the topics of interest.
There were many challenges faced after
Hurricane Maria, starting from the most important part of any business, Our
Team. A small group of our dedicated staff, stayed at our facilities
during the hurricane, they were responsible for monitoring and logging all
incidents related to the hurricane. I thank them for their efforts, as
they were the "first responders" of our plan. Like many others,
just getting our staff with the basic necessities so that they could be able to
work was a challenge. Food, Gas and even a place to stay were provided to our
employees. Some of our staff members turned our facilities into their temporary
homes, as many brought the rest of their family to stay during the
day. Another challenge was logistics, including physical access to our
towers, our customers and other locations for repair. Also, related to
logistics, getting supplies from the mainland turned to be a huge
problem. The federal government was controlling all inbound cargo to
PR.
(2) Can you share with us a brief summary
of how you overcame this challenge?
We relied on our customers as partners to overcame many of the challenges. Starting from reaching cooperative agreements with gas stations so that we could have gas to operate and for our employees. Also, we partnered with a restaurant that provided our staff and family with daily breakfast and lunch.
The logistics challenge was one that was a bit difficult to overcome. Thankfully Most of the principal roads were somewhat cleared for traffic by the local citizens, letting a hand to the local government to quickly recover access to transportation which is critical on this kind of event.
Getting the supplies from the Mainland to PR in order for our company to quickly repair the damages presented the biggest hurdle as the US government was controlling all sea and air traffic. The most cost effective way of shipping 20+ pallets of equipment would be by sea, but we had to rely on more costly air transport to get our supplies in a timely manner. This with some issues in terms of being able to get an air transport window by the FEMA controlled airport.
(3) Where is your company now vs. pre
Maria and how are you preparing to become more resilient
We are bigger and stronger! We have learned many lessons
along the way and rectified many weaknesses. Among our plans that are
being executed right now are:
-Non-dependence on any government help, during a disaster,
your company must count with all the resources necessary to operate completely
disengaged from any help or assistance from the government. This includes
shelter, food, water, gas, transportation and communications.
-Alternative long run power. We have revised our
backup power plan and expanded it capabilities from isolated operation to 4
continuous weeks. The addition of solar energy is critical, but must be
integrated property to have a high survivability rate.
-Redundancy, Redundancy, Redundancy. Any operation
that relies on Internet access for its continuity, must include several, fully
independent connectivity providers. We all now by now that a fiber cut or
a copper line can take months to get repaired so to guarantee the survivability
of your business, other technologies like wireless or satellite must be
included in the contingency plan. We relied on fiber for backhaul but we
are building a multi-gig microwave backbone that goes around the island and
thought it. This network will protect our services for future events.
 |
|
Enrique Ortiz - President, Claro PR / Gino
Villarini - CEO & Founder, AeroNet / Henry Gordillo - President, Intech / Felix Lugo - Country Manager, C&W Business.
|
Follow me on social media for more information on this and other related topics:
