I recall, 2001 I think, when we had a lot of flooding in South Texas. Cell phone towers were down and we had no communication with our branches down there. Luckily we had a belt and suspenders approach and had two-way pagers as well as cell phones. The pagers used different towers and we did have communications through those. It was a real relief.

Yesterday I was reading in a photography magazine about one guy who scooped may other photogs in New Orleans after Katrina. It seemed he used Verizon as his wireless provider. Verizon had (has?) a contract with the government to provide communications so they had a priority of getting their system up and running. I'm sure if they needed anything special, they were likely to get it.

I thought this was an interesting point to consider in your disaster planning as well. You might also look to the upper left of your screen at the BlackBerry ad offering a white paper. It may also have some interesting info.

We also have 2 satellite telephones. Being located in New Orleans, we assessed the risk and the likelihood of these being beneficial and determined it was one of the best steps we could take in a disaster recovery situation.

In Okaloosa County, Florida the emergency personnel use the Nextel service. But after hurricane Ivan, they found out they couldn't talk to each other. Nextel has since purchase mobile towers they can deploy during the next disaster. They are essentially cell towers on wheels that are just in storage right now. It may be beneficial to find out what service your emergency personnel use and sign up with that service. After the 2005 hurricane season, it's not just banks that are making their disaster plans more robust.

My bank has choosen to go with satellite phones, but be careful! The service we use is headquartered in Tampa, Florida. Might as well be hurrican alley! How crazy is that?! What happens when they go down?

GETS, WSP, and TSP would definitely come into play here. I a sure that is the "contract" that verizon has with the government. Everyone should look into this for their FI if at all possible. Unfortunately, I don't have a whole lot of info on it, currently researching. It may not even be applicable to many FI's. I know that several FI's down here in New Orleans have 1 or all 3 of the services and I am trying to figure out how to subscribe for my FI. If anyone has any info, please let me know.

To be eligble for GETS, an organization must have requirements for emergency telephone services. Anyone reading this thread would qualify if you directly support Disaster Recovery. You request a GETS card from your primary federal regulator. In my case, I sent a letter to FDIC asking for sponsorship. It was quite a process, but hopefully will be useful if and when it's needed.