T Mobile US : Mobile is Helping he Florida Panhandle Rebuild … Sronger, Beer

Just in the past few days, generous partners like Cradlepoint have donated routers that allowed us to provide mobile internet connectivity supporting critical community services -- voting and polling stations in Bay County for upcoming elections, local libraries offering financial aid registration stations, and comfort facilities providing food and showers. We even worked with Bay County Emergency Services to send our local customers SMS updates with safety and relief services information.

And as I mentioned earlier, it's not just about being on the ground in the near-term. We're committed to long-term support as well. Going forward, we will make our LTE network in the Florida Panhandle even better than it was before Hurricane Michael hit. We're starting by accelerating deployment of sites that were already being considered and now adding some new ones into the mix - 42 total. We will launch 600 MHz Extended Range LTE in Panama City this year. It travels twice as far from the tower and works four times better in buildings than mid-band spectrum. Also, our 600 MHz LTE equipment is 5G ready.

We're also doing what we can to support broad fundraising efforts like text-to-give and an employee match program that doubles donations during disasters. Again, through our #HR4HR (Homeruns for Hurricane Relief) program this year, we will donate $10,000 for every home run hit during the World Series to veteran-led relief support organization Team Rubicon,and $2 every time anyone - T-Mobile customer or not - posts the #HR4HR hashtag to Twitter or Instagram. In the last year, we donated $4M through this effort -- and we're going big again this year!

In the face of disaster, you truly see the genuine goodness of people. I want to again express thanks to our incredible employees, partners, and volunteers who have worked so hard and selflessly to come together as a team and help communities when they're needed most. We're humbled when we hear from customers who are so appreciative of those efforts. 'In a really really scary, really devastating time, being able to let people know we're okay was very very critical and important,' said one. 'We thank T-Mobile so very much. We're T-Mobile for life.'

Even though our network is up and running, T-Mobile isn't going anywhere. We'll be here in the Florida Panhandle helping those communities rebuild … stronger, better.