Will Cell Phones Towers Work During The Shutoff?

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - When the power goes out in your area as a result of the PG&E power shutoff, will your cell phone work? The answer depends on your cell phone service provider.

T-Mobile confirmed that some of its sites had lost power during the outages. It said, in part: "only a small number of sites down in some of the areas affected by the power shut off."

Sprint acknowledged power outages could occur at its cell sites but did not specifically say if any outages had occurred.

If you're a Verizon customer, you didn't have any dropped calls. It said none of its towers had a service disruption caused by the shutoff.

All of the companies said they were either deploying additional generators or monitoring their generators to ensure cell coverage.

Here are the statements from the companies:

AT&T: "We're closely monitoring and are deploying resources from other states to support our customers and public safety, including staging hundreds of additional generators and equipment. We are actively refueling generators and preparing additional assets for quick deployment in the state."

T-Mobile: "Our network is holding up well, with only a small number of sites down in some of the areas affected by the power shut off. Our priority is to keep our customers connected and we continue to work closely with the local utilities monitor the situation and respond where needed. In addition to backup power – as noted in our newsroom post - we have a fleet of temporary generators that our emergency response teams can deploy if needed to get sites back up and running."

 Verizon: "We have generators and backup batteries at the majority of our cell sites (towers) and all of our switch locations (network nerve center) to keep our network up and running if commercial power is lost. And we are able to refuel our generators to keep them running. Having this backup to our backup plan is critical to our strategy. This ensures our network can continue serving customers indefinitely until commercial power is restored."

Sprint: "Sprint continues to coordinate closely with these local power companies and local governments to try to minimize wireless network interruptions in impacted areas.

"The power shut offs may impact cell sites in the area. Some of Sprint's cell sites may have permanent generator power available. For others, the company is actively deploying portable generators as much and as quickly as possible.

"Sprint is committed to providing customers reliable service and helping to ensure its public safety customers have the tools they need to timely and effectively respond to emergencies".

Have you experienced any cell phone outages? Tell us about it. Email us at news@kovr.com.