When it comes to the mobile carriers, it can often feel like they are all in a cycle of never-ending competition for your custom. A new phone is released, each carrier comes out with their particular deal, promotion or otherwise, which looks to undercut the next carrier. Likewise, they all seem quite happy to explain to you why their network, service and coverage is better than all of the others. At times, the competitive nature of the carrier industry can even get a little personal. Of course, there are also those times when carriers do find middle-ground and come together in a temporary form of solidarity. This is best often noted when a major disaster occurs or terrorist attack happens. At which point, the carriers usually all open network charges offering those affected the option to stay in contact with their loved ones, without having to worry about the costs. Although, sometimes those instances can prove problematic for the networks, like when Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012 and greatly affected the telecoms network as a whole.
As an extension of the effects of Sandy on the telecoms industry, the big carriers in the U.S., AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular and Verizon have all now signed on to the ‘Wireless Network Resiliency Cooperative Framework’. The main goal of which is for carriers to work together during these times to provide and share information with a view to fixing network issues and outages when situations occur. While there are a number of benefits to the framework, the main headliner aspects will look to address roaming, mutual aid, government and and consumer preparedness and better information when such instances arise.
This is an initiative which has been in development for the last few months and has been spearheaded by the CTIA, the FCC’s Tom Wheeler and and Rep. Frank Pallone (D-New Jersey). According to Meredith Attwell Baker, CTIA’s CEO, this latest initiative will bring together “a set of common-sense solutions to improve coordination and network recovery during disasters and emergencies.” While during the initial announcement on the Framework from last week, Rep. Pallone was noted stating this hopefully will help consumers to gain “access to wireless service during an emergency even if their wireless network goes down.” Those Interested in reading more about the Wireless Network Resiliency Cooperative Framework, can do so by heading through the source link below and reading the recent CTIA press announcement.