Mexico. After the earthquake that occurred in Mexico on September 19 of magnitude 7.1 degrees on the Richter scale, there was an increase in sensitive voice and data traffic in various parts of Mexico City, State of Mexico, Morelos and Puebla, among other entities in the country, which caused saturation of telecommunications networks, that is, a larger number of users than usual tried to make calls and send messages at the same time.
According to the report of the Federal Institute of Telecommunications, IFT, after 72 hours of the earthquake, 98% of public telecommunications networks were in operation. In addition, 97% of the affectations suffered have been attended and the services satisfactorily restored. The remaining percentage is in the process of being resolved. The main affectations and intermittencies were attended before 48 hours after the earthquake.
The main effects and momentary intermittencies to the telecommunications networks and services were due to power cuts, damage to the buildings where the telecommunications sites are located, damage to surrounding buildings, difficulties in refueling the electricity plants that feed the sites, and even due to security fences in areas identified by civil protection authorities that, in protection of the affected facilities and the rescue work, made it impossible to restore the telecommunications networks.
In telecommunications networks, the affectations included fallen sites, affected nodes, fiber optic cuts and, in some cases, damaged buildings.
As for fixed and mobile telephony services, after the first 72 hours, it is confirmed that some services that were affected have already been restored. 75,000 voice services were affected, of which, within 48 hours of the event, 70,000 were restored; as for the interruptions of data services, of 106 thousand affected are already in operation 102 thousand.
In broadcasting, no serious damage is reported and transmissions have been uninterrupted. In the state of Morelos, five radio stations and a television channel were affected in their facilities:
- XHTIX-FM on Temixco
- XHCM-FM, XHNG-FM in Cuernavaca
- XHCU-FM in Cuautla
- XHZPC-FM in Jojutla
- XHCUM-FM in Tres Marías
In the state of Puebla, two broadcasting stations were the most affected in their facilities; however, they have continued with their operation.
- XHOLA-FM in Puebla
- XHVP-FM in Atlixco
In the State of Mexico, in the town of Malinalco, the broadcasting station XHMLO-FM was off the air until September 20 due to lack of electricity; currently, it has already resumed transmissions.
The concessionaires have carried out various actions to minimize failures and restore telecommunications services in the face of the emergency situation, since the first hours after the earthquake, including:
- Displacement of emergency plants to sites at risk of affectation.
- Fuel supply to electricity plants.
- Displacement of personnel for contingency care.
- Optimization of energy consumption.
- Preventive patrols.
- Permanent guards in telephone exchanges.
- Identification of risk points with possible impact on infrastructure and citizenship.
- Logistics to prioritize care on nodes with the greatest impact on the network.
- Repair of damaged optical fiber.
- Dispatch of mobile units to affected areas.
- Constant communication with state authorities, the Federal Electricity Commission, Civil Protection, Municipal Police, among others.
It should be noted that the effects on telecommunications networks have been addressed and services restored in most cases. For their part, the radio and television concessionaires have fulfilled a public service of general interest by permanently informing the population of messages of public utility.
The IFT will continue its coordination with authorities and concessionaires so that telecommunications networks and services are fully restored. Despite the intermittencies and the increase in voice and data traffic that caused saturation in the networks, they proved to be robust and resilient, they did not suffer a collapse or a generalized interruption.
Users of voice, SMS and data services were able to communicate with their families, thanks to the solidarity of the population and the decision of the operators to open their networks and offer free mobile services to their users. In some cases, the continuity of services has allowed Civil Protection rescue actions to be facilitated and save lives.
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