Hurricane Milton blew through parts of Florida yesterday leaving death and destruction in its wake. The storm was so powerful that it blew away the top of Tampa’s domed baseball stadium, Tropicana Field. At last count, three million Floridians were without power. But one thing those who were in the path of the storm don’t have to worry about is how often they access the Verizon network if they are a Verizon Wireless postpaid or Small Business customer.
Earlier this week, Verizon Wireless announced that it is waiving domestic call, text, and data usage for postpaid and Verizon Small Business customers who are most impacted by the storm. Such usage from October 9th through October 23rd will be covered by Verizon for qualified subscribers living in these Florida counties:
Alachua, Brevard, Charlotte, Citrus, Clay, DeSoto, Flagler, Gilchrist, Glades, Hardee, Hernando, Highlands, Hillsborough, Indian River, Lake, Lee, Levy, Manatee, Marion, Okeechobee, Orange, Osceola, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, Putnam, Saint Johns, Saint Lucie, Sarasota, Seminole, Sumter, and Volusia.
Before Hurricane Milton touched down in Florida, Verizon’s response team was already on the ground. | Image credit-Verizon
Customers who do qualify do not have to do anything to have their domestic calls, texts, and data usage waived. Those whose billing cycles have already closed will automatically be credited back as overages will also be automatically credited.
The wind, rain, and debris did damage the fiber infrastructure used to send data to the core command centers of the network from cell sites. Verizon personnel are looking at alternative ways to make these connections so that affected customers can get back online “and will then begin aggressively deploying temporary satellite network assets” as soon as Verizon deems it safe to do so.
