Inside Verizon’s Secret Florida Hurricane Preparation Facility

Hurricane season is here and Verizon is ready.

With experts predicting(Opens in a new window) 12 to 17 total named storms during the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from Jun. 1 to Nov. 30, Verizon is gearing up for the possible worst-case scenario at secret switch centers throughout Florida and other natural-disaster-prone areas across the country. 

On a recent sweltering July day, Verizon invited a small group of journalists, including myself, for a rare tour of one of its hidden switch facilities. These buildings are built to withstand Category 5 winds and contain the resources necessary to run off-grid for months if commercial power goes down, Verizon leads said. Located about 25 miles outside of Tampa, FL, in a rural area typically known for its strawberry farms, the gated, 25,000-square-foot facility is so well concealed that the address didn’t even come up in Apple Maps.

A Verizon drone over the Sanibel Causeway after Hurricane Ian in 2022 (Credit: Verizon)

Here, I got a look at Verizon’s fortified infrastructure and state-of-the-art transportable assets designed to help quickly restore critical communications should disaster strike, including mobile cell sites on trucks and trailers, as well as a 5G robotic dog.

During the peak of Hurricane Ian last year, thousands of cell sites were down, Verizon leads said. On hurricane-ravaged Sanibel Island, which was cut off from the mainland of Florida when a bridge collapsed during the storm, Verizon launched a drone that provided cellular coverage to support search and rescue teams and first responders. Powered by a generator on the ground, the tethered drone can fly for up to 1,000 hours (or about six weeks), providing coverage for an approximate radius of five to seven miles. This is exactly the type of situation Verizon and its hurricane-proof bunkers are able to handle when needed.

Each storm center consists of a number of rooms, all of which serve a distinct purpose, and I’m here to walk you through the ones I saw. As a Floridian myself, the tour offered me peace of mind about the carrier’s resiliency and hurricane preparedness.

Network Monitoring Starts in the Control Room

My tour of Verizon’s switch center began in the control room where employees monitor the network. You’ll have to use your imagination here because this is one place in the facility where we weren’t allowed to take photos. The room is outfitted with a row of cubicles and no fewer than 10 TVs mounted to the walls, each displaying cell site status maps, weather radar, security camera feeds for the building, generator information, and more. The cell site status maps are color coded, with red spots indicating some type of issue.

An overview of the facility’s redundant systems architecture (Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

During an emergency event, Verizon employees may staff the control room in 24-hour shifts to monitor the network. An offsite team also oversees the network, providing backup to notify local switch center employees if there’s a problem when the facility isn’t fully staffed, like on weekends.

No Photos Allowed: The Fortress-Like Switch Room

Next, we entered an actual switch room, where I immediately noticed a significant increase in the noise level and a decrease in the ambient temperature. Again, we weren’t allowed to take photos in this room, but imagine rack after rack of neatly organized equipment and countless yellow fiber cables running between everything. 

“All those zeros and ones, those bits, that come in from a handheld device—be it voice, be it data—it all gets dropped from the cell site onto whatever transport provider is providing the fiber links to that particular location across the state,” a Verizon lead explained. “Once it gets here, it will port into large-scale enterprise routers; those routers are responsible for switching that traffic, depending upon what type of traffic it is, to the core. From the core, it’ll go to whatever end device it needs to go to.” In other words, the switch analyzes the incoming data, tells all the data where it needs to go, and then opens the door in that direction. Thus, it’s vital that switches remain operational at all times.

Constructed like a fortress, the switch room is securely situated at the center of the building, so any would-be intruder would have to get through many layers to get there.

Backup Batteries for Days (Literally) in the Power Room

The power room features rack after rack housing what must be hundreds of batteries (Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

Verizon leads explained that switch facilities like the one we toured typically run on direct current (DC) power. In the power room, incoming alternating current (AC) power from local provider Teco Energy is then rectified, or converted, to DC, which then feeds all the switch equipment.

Multiple layers of redundancy are built in. Generators can provide backup power to the plant and all the equipment in the switch room if needed. In the case of a “dark office” outage in which one or both generators fail, the facility has at least eight hours of battery backup, which would give switch engineers time to repair a generator or manipulate the breakers to restore power. Verizon says each switch facility must undergo stress testing every five years to ensure the reliability of the entire backup power system. 

Keeping It Cool in the HVAC Room 

(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

The switching equipment generates a lot of BTU output (heat), so the facility’s HVAC system is extremely important. The switch room is kept at a cool 72 degrees Fahrenheit and redundant HVAC units ensure there’s always a cool breeze on standby. 

The facility’s massive air exchangers live in the HVAC room. These air handlers provide cooling for the switch room, which requires three working units at a time. Verizon also keeps two standbys at the facility, so if one unit shuts down for whatever reason, the system can automatically turn on a backup in order to maintain the proper temperature in the switch room. 

If the two backup handlers were to go down, the team would fire up a HORSE (HVAC On Road-Side Equipment), a self-contained portable cooling unit with a generator onboard, to provide sufficient cooling for the switch room.

Keeping things cool in hot Florida is no easy task, but Verizon appears to have prepared for every eventuality.

Transportable Asset Yard, aka the Farm Yard 

COLTs in the Farm Yard (Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

For the final stop on the tour, we went outside to the Transportable Asset Yard, where we saw several Verizon Frontline Crisis Response communications deployables. Put more simply, these are trailers and vehicles that can drive somewhere to provide cellular network coverage when needed.

Since many of the assets have animal-themed acronyms, including the COLT (Cell on Light Truck), the MEOW (Matsing Equipment on Wheels), and the SPOT (Satellite Picocell on a Trailer), this area is informally called the Farm Yard. 

Inside the SPOT (Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

The SPOT provides wireless connectivity to public agencies in times of crisis, such as first responders. In a search and rescue effort, the SPOT can provide mission-critical 4G LTE services, with a range about the size of a football field, to incident command staff when the network is down or in rural areas where coverage is unavailable. In 2022, Verizon deployed these assets nearly 700 times to support first responders in 49 states and Washington, DC.

Inside the COLT (Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

The COLT is a truck outfitted with mobile cell site equipment and onboard masts for extended range. Verizon can quickly move this asset to provide service when a cell site is down. Inside, there’s air conditioning and enough room to set up a cot for personnel to sleep on if needed. 

The MEOW (Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

The MEOW is a large-capacity antenna mounted on a scissor lift. Verizon deploys this for major events like the Super Bowl. The attached Matsing Ball at the top is able to finely direct coverage to specific spots.

A 5G Robotic Dog for Hazmat Situations

Verizon frontline crisis response manager Alex Brosky (left) controls the 5G robotic dog alongside senior manager Earl Struble (right) (Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

One of the coolest assets Verizon showed off during the tour was a 5G robotic dog that walks around on four legs. Verizon leads said the dog can deliver 4G/5G service, as well as lifesaving supplies like an EpiPen, during hazardous materials incidents or other emergencies. Controlled by a Verizon lead via a handheld device, the 5G robotic dog, which does not yet have an official name, followed us around as we toured the Farm Yard; it proved to be quite fast and nimble. It’s a good option when sending a person is dangerous or impractical.

As is often the case with natural disasters, not everything went according to plan during the tour. The robotic dog wowed me with its ability to trot on asphalt, and then, all of a sudden, it unexpectedly slumped to the ground in dramatic fashion, its black metal legs flailing as it fell. 

Verizon leads surmised that overheating caused the failure. I can’t fault the dog; standing in the full Florida midday sun, I felt about ready to pass out myself.

But I feel confident that if the dog goes down in a real disaster, Verizon is equipped with an army of other assets to pick up the slack.