Emergency Preparedness

BellSouth understands how important communications services are, particularly during a crisis. The BellSouth family is intensively trained in dealing with emergencies and responding to customer needs as soon as conditions are safe to do so. This experience was most evident in the latter part of 2004 when four hurricanes impacted parts of BellSouth’s network. BellSouth’s network performed very well in dealing with the effects of heavy rain, flooding and severe wind.

BellSouth’s commitment only begins with its corporate philosophy and emergency procedures. BellSouth has a management team which oversees each BellSouth division’s implementation and maintenance of its business continuity plan. In the event of a crisis, these plans will enable BellSouth to direct needed equipment and human resources to the areas that are most affected in a safe manner that seeks to protect employees and customers alike.

Network advances have allowed us to keep more customers in service during severe weather events. This was evident as Hurricane Ivan came ashore on the Gulf Coast. While there were more than one million customers on the Gulf Coast without power, 700,000 BellSouth customers kept their telephone service. BellSouth has taken appropriate measures to maintain the network that our customers have consistently relied upon for decades, resulting in most customers keeping service during severe weather events. In those instances when customers do lose service, these measures serve to speed recovery and restoration.

Even before commercial power is restored, BellSouth deploys additional technicians and equipment to the affected areas and works to place generators within the network to restore telecommunications service as quickly as possible. When necessary, BellSouth employees work around the clock to restore telephone service for our customers.

BellSouth is dedicated to designing and building facilities that minimize exposure to natural events and that incorporate the latest technology in emergency power systems. BellSouth strives to design and build the critical network infrastructure necessary to minimize exposure to any natural disaster.

BellSouth continually evaluates its emergency restoration processes and will make changes as needed. An essential element to improving restoration efforts is the continued building of close working partnerships with local power companies. These partnerships allow faster assessments of affected areas, which is critical to expedient service restoration.