Building a Resilient Telecommunications Sector in Puerto Rico in the Aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria

Abstract

In September 2017, following two catastrophic hurricanes, Puerto Rico's wireline, wireless and cable networks were rendered largely inoperable. As this article will illustrate, the causes of this devastating failure of the telecommunications sector were not attributable to Hurricanes Irma and Maria alone. The hurricanes revealed the fragility of Puerto Rico's telecommunications infrastructure, which failed, leaving the majority of Puerto Rican citizens without a means to communicate by phone or by Internet or to reach 911 for emergency services for weeks or months. This article will also sum-marize the 33 courses of action (COAs) for rebuilding the telecom-munications sector that were proposed by the Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center, a Federally Funded Research and De-velopment Center (FFRDC) operated by the RAND Corporation and adopted by the government of Puerto Rico. These COAs were prepared as part of the Congressionally mandated Puerto Rico eco-nomic and disaster recovery plan. Even though significant progress has been made toward recovery in Puerto Rico, substantial invest-ment is still required to achieve a resilient and robust telecommunications sector. The estimated cost for the 33 COAs was $3.2 bil-lion. The overall cost estimate for the Puerto Rico recovery plan, including all sectors, was $139 billion.

El Estudio de Resiliencia de la Red Electrica de Puerto Rico y Transiciones a Energia 100% Renovable (PR100): Informe Final [Puerto Rico Grid Resilience and Transitions to 100% Renewable Energy Study (PR100): Final Report]

“…El resultado es una dependencia geográfica innecesaria entre las líneas eléctricas aéreas y las comunicaciones por cable: la degradación de un elemento (p. ej., colapso de postes o cortes de líneas durante el mantenimiento y la reparación) puede afectar las operaciones, tanto de la red eléctrica como de los sistemas de distribución de comunicaciones (Cordova et al 2021). • Seguridad pública: la Oficina de la Policía de Puerto Rico, junto con varios departamentos de policía municipales, cuerpos de bomberos y servicios médicos de emergencia, utilizan varios sistemas de radio y una red segura de seguridad pública para coordinar la respuesta a incidentes y responder a las llamadas al 911.…”

“…Muchas de estas operaciones también están reemplazando las alternativas manuales a estos procesos digitales, lo que hace que el activo o sistema de infraestructura posiblemente no pueda operar sin una infraestructura de comunicaciones. Debido a la estrecha interdependencia que comparten, las infraestructuras de energía y comunicaciones se consideran ampliamente dependencias críticas de primer y segundo orden de todos los demás sectores de infraestructura (Cordova et al 2021).…”

Puerto Rico Grid Resilience and Transitions to 100% Renewable Energy Study (PR100): Final Report

“…Wired communication lines and electric power lines often share rights-of-way on the same distribution poles, which add weight and reduce wind resistance to the poles and aerial lines that increase the potential for damage in high wind events. The result is an unnecessary geographic dependency between aerial electric power lines and wired communications: The degradation of one element (e.g., pole collapses or line cuts during maintenance and repair) may affect the operations of both electric grid and communications distribution systems (Cordova et al 2021). • Public Safety: The Puerto Rico State Police Department along with various municipal police departments, fire departments, and emergency medical services use various radio systems and a secure public safety network to coordinate incident response and respond to 911 calls.…”

“…Many of these operations are also replacing the manual alternatives to these digital processes, leaving the infrastructure asset or system possibly unable to operate without communications infrastructure. Because of the tight interdependency that they share, energy and communications infrastructures are widely viewed as both critical first-and second-order dependencies of all other infrastructure sectors (Cordova et al 2021). Most of this throughput transits the Port of San Juan-Puerto Rico's primary commercial porthandling most maritime cargo moving through the region's other seaports (DTOP n.d.).…”