Hurricane Sandy has so severely disrupted cellphone service in the metropolitan area that even tech-savvy Mayor Bloomberg is having trouble making calls on his mobile phone.
“Many people have experienced loss of phone service . . . It is frustrating. I have tried a number of times to call and gotten through only to find it go to a one-way call very quickly,” Hizzoner said at a press briefing yesterday.
Bloomberg said massive flooding has knocked out power at some of the cell sites that route calls.
“We have been in touch with AT&T and Verizon, who have requested our assistance in pumping out water at some of their critical locations so they can get back to service, and we’re working with them to do everything we can,” the mayor said.
The Federal Communication Commission on Tuesday reported that Sandy disabled 25 percent of cell sites in 10 states along the battered East Coast — especially in ravaged New York and New Jersey.
Most of the damaged cell sites were still inoperable yesterday, according to the FCC.
“Overall, the condition of our communications networks is improving, but serious outages remain,” said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.
In a statement released yesterday, Verizon Wireless said 94 percent of its cell towers were operating from Maine to Virginia, thanks to back-up generators, but the carrier said the worst outages remain in New York City and northern New Jersey.