Half-Million Puerto Rico Subs Still Out in Fiona's Wake

By John Eggerton
( NextTV )
last updated

FCC will grant providers some regulatory relief

Workmen repair utiliity poles in San Juan, Puerto Rico, after Hurricane Fiona
Utility techs work to restore power in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona. (Image credit: Jose Jimenez/Getty Images)

More than a half-million cable and wireline subs are still without service in areas of Puerto Rico hit hardest by Hurricane Fiona, according to the Federal Communications Commission‘s voluntary Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) as of noon Saturday (Sept. 24).

But that 560,295 subscriber-outage figure was down from 650,185 the day before and almost cut in half from the initial million-plus outages.

Also: Fiona Knocks Out Cable, Wireline Service

No TV stations were reported to be out of service, though 5 FMs and 2 AMs were not operating.

The FCC said it would take various actions to help providers during the aftermath, including possibly granting special temporary authority to operate or issuing waivers, extending regulatory filing deadlines, and extending the regulatory fee deadline by a couple of days to Sept. 30.

On September 21, President Joe Biden declared Puerto Rico a major disaster area, which means local businesses sustaining losses in affected areas can apply for aid. ■

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.