After Hurricane Ida made landfall, the dispatch center in New Orleans reported problems with receiving calls and even told residents to walk to the closest fire station. Also reported were issues with cell service in Louisiana and Mississippi. AT&T reported 60% of it’s cellular service was working as normal. So, that means 40% was NOT working (go ahead, read that again). It does make one wonder, if your in-vehicle mapping and pre-incident planning app is internet based, and you need a cell connection for your app, is 60% coverage acceptable to you?

Here’s the article about the dispatch issues and cell service as reported by The Washington Post.

T-Mobile reported that 70% of its service was operating as normal in Louisiana and Mississippi. Sure we can assume the carriers worked hard to restore service. But emergency responders need their mapping as the event happens….when the call volumes are the highest.

OnScene Xplorer has always been design and used by our customers with all the mapping data local on the device. OnScene Xplorer 3.x and the coming OnScene Xplorer 4.0 use advanced data techniques to ensure you’re able to find your way, even when your cell service is knocked-out and the internet is unavailable on your device.