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power, commercial or back-up. In the 2011 earthquake But telecommunications infrastructure isn’t invulnerable,
in Japan, two-thirds of telecommunications outages were and there are limits to resilience and disaster planning:
restored within eight days and more than 90% within three the balance of cost and risk, unknown and new threats,
weeks—an impressive achievement given the magnitude the vulnerabilities of critical dependencies, the vastness
of the disaster (NTT 2011, NTT 2011-2). After Hurricane of telecommunications networks, and the inability to
Katrina, the wireless network—the focus of recovery, a anticipate and plan for all threats.
common approach—was almost fully recovered along the
Gulf Coast and partially recovered in New Orleans within Moreover, the current threat environment isn’t lessening.
a week (Kwasinksi 2013). As impressive as these recoveries An increase in cyber attacks poses a serious threat to
were, many communities and citizens were still affected by telecommunications (a prime target), one that seems
substantial outages. unlikely to decrease. The recent scourge of extreme
weather events demonstrates the difficulty of anticipating
What does the future hold? and planning for events not before seen or not in their
Telecommunications infrastructure has demonstrated magnitude. The devastating tsunami in the Great East Japan
resilience in disasters, and developments in technology may Earthquake, its magnitude not anticipated or planned for,
increase that resilience, reducing dependence on power, may be a harbinger of things to come.
hardening infrastructure against environmental and other
threats, and improving network management in disasters. Modern telecommunications has demonstrated impressive
Technologies like big data and artificial intelligence may resilience in disasters, even while we can’t overlook its
improve the ability to forecast, model, and manage disasters vulnerabilities. The future of telecommunications resilience
and their impacts. holds both promise and vast unknowns, like much else in
our current age. Ω

Notes
1. The organizing principle of this article is based on concepts from Townsend, Anthony M and Moss, Mitchell L. (2005).

Works Referenced
Hortobagyi, Jeff (2020). Telecommunications in Disasters: An Evidence-Based Approach, Disaster Recovery Journal, May 8, 2020
Kwasinski, Alexis (2013). Lessons from Field Damage Assessments about Communication Networks Power Supply and Infrastructure
Performance during Natural Disasters with a focus on Hurricane Sandy. University of Austin, February 3, 2013
Kwasinski, Alexis and Tang, Alex K (2012). Telecommunications Performance in the M=9.0 Off-Shore East Coast of Japan Earthquake and
Tsunami, March 11, 2011, Proceedings of the International Symposium on Engineering Lessons Learned from the 2011 Great East Japan
Earthquake, March 1-4, 2012, Tokyo, Japan
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication (MIC 2011). MIC Communications News Vol. 21 No.1, April 14 and May 16, 2011, Bi-Weekly
Newsletter of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), Japan
NTT East Corporation (November 2011). Recovering from the Great East Japan Earthquake: NTT East’s Endeavors, Nippon Telegraph and
Telephone East Corporation https://www.ntt-east.co.jp/info/detail/pdf/shinsai_fukkyu_e.pdf
NTT East Corporation (NTT 2011-2), Press Release: Damage and Restoration Status Regarding the Tohoku-Pacific Ocean Earthquake and
Future Prospects, March 30, 2011, https://www.ntt-east.co.jp/en/release/detail/20110330_01.html
Pearson, James (2022). Russia downed satellite internet in Ukraine – Western officials. Reuters, May 10, 2022

Ruiter, Rob (2017) Telecommunications on the Ring of Fire, Journal - Communications Network 11(2):14-20January 2017
Townsend, Anthony M and Moss, Mitchell L. (2005). Telecommunications Infrastructure in Disasters: Preparing Cities for Crisis Communications,
Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University, April 2005
Zimmerman, Jonathan and Coss, William (2012). The Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011, Battalion 14 Auxiliary Communications
Group Leader

ABOUT THE AUTHOR À PROPOS DE L’AUTEUR Jeff
Jeff Hortobagyi has more than 10 years Hortobagyi a plus de 10 ans d’expérience
of experience as a business continuity en tant que professionnel de la continuité
professional based in Vancouver, Canada. He des affaires basé à Vancouver, au Canada.
has presented on business continuity topics Il a fait des présentations sur des sujets
at conferences, workshops, and webinars, liés à la continuité des activités lors de
and is a member of the DRI Canada board conférences, d’ateliers et de webinaires, et il
of directors. est membre du conseil d’administration de
DRI Canada.

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