T-Mobile shares disaster preparedness

A little less than two hours away from the Great Washington Shakeout, the largest earthquake drill in the U.S. Now, in a natural disaster, communication is critical, but electricity and cell service can be severely disrupted. And this morning, Salim Quaidry with T-Mobile's engineering operations team joining us now to talk more about their disaster preparedness. Salim, good morning to you. Good morning. Good morning, everyone. So we all know how important our phones are to stay connected these days. I mean, obviously, they're in our pocket all the time. So let's say the big one hits. What should we expect in terms of cell phone service disruptions, and how do you manage that? Yeah, well, great question. First of all, I mean, Great ShakeOut is a great reminder that preparation really starts long before an emergency. Whether it's earthquake, earthquake, or wildfire, or severe storm, connectivity can be a lifeline. So helping people reach loved ones and critical information, calling for help. So we do a lot of things ahead of time, right? We have staged devices and generators in the context of a power being disrupted. We also have people well-trained that we train all year round to make sure that we're ready for when disaster strikes. So what does the emergency response look like out in the field? So we have a number of things that we do, right? We have trucks like you're seeing right now on TV that help create connectivity like a bubble in the context of a disruption. We also have generators. It's a very important asset of ours when power is disrupted. We're here to restore that. We also have drones, a set of drones, many types, those that do rescue and research, reconnaissance, but also drones that can also create connectivity right there and then in the context of a disaster. So these are all the assets that we utilize to ensure that our communities stay safe and connected. And you're using AI to help with your disaster response. Can you tell us about that? Well, AI is an additional tool in our tool set, obviously, which helps us be more efficient at staying connected. if a site, for example, gets disrupted for whatever reason. The surrounding sites sense that there's an opportunity to up-tilt it and manage the lost coverage. All of that automatically, all powered by AI. So these are additional tools while we're repairing the impacted sites. AI can help mitigate some of the disruptions. So what went into developing this plan? And what have you learned from previous natural disasters? Lots of learnings. Obviously, there's different types of disasters, whether it's fire, like we saw here in Spokane not too long ago, or hurricanes or flooding. What we learn is we need to be prepared ahead of time, which we are, right? So we need to station and pre-stage crews and assets ahead of time. We also need to bolster and increase the resiliency of every single cell site with permanent generators, battery backup if necessary. We drill, right? We work all year round to make sure that we have the necessary processes. And every single event that occurs, we work with local authorities and that's a key aspect of our effectiveness, making sure that we are directed to restore service in the evacuation routes, all of these kind of convention centers that turn into areas where people can have shelters and things of that nature. So there are lots of learnings, but always updating our playbook to ensure connectivity is top of mind. Salim Quaidry with T-Mobile. Thanks so much for your insight on this. We appreciate it. Appreciate it. Thank you so much.