Our headquarters is in Tarpon Springs, so hurricane prep isn’t theoretical for us. A lot of businesses have plywood, generators and a plan for the building, but no real plan for staying connected.
Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 through November 30, according to Ready.gov. The time to fix your connectivity plan is well before a storm is in the forecast, because circuit orders, equipment and testing all take time.
This is written with Tampa Bay and Florida offices in mind, but the same thinking applies anywhere a storm, a construction crew or a fiber cut can take you offline.
Why one internet connection isn’t enough
When a storm hits, connectivity fails in a few common ways: a line gets cut or flooded, utility power goes out at your building or somewhere along the provider’s network, or the provider’s own equipment goes down.
Cellular networks aren’t immune either. After Hurricane Milton, the FCC reported that 6.4% of cell sites in the affected Florida area were still out of service on October 12, 2024, down from 12.1% the day before (FCC status report). The same report breaks outages down by cause, including power and “transport,” meaning the site’s own connection back to the network.
The lesson isn’t that any one technology is bad. It’s that every connection has failure points, and a good backup plan avoids sharing them.
Circuit diversity: different carriers AND different paths
A second internet circuit only helps if it doesn’t fail for the same reason as the first. That means two kinds of diversity:
- Carrier diversity. Use two different providers, so one provider’s outage doesn’t take out both.
- Path diversity. Make sure the two connections physically reach your building by different routes. Two carriers can still share the same pole line, conduit or building entrance. If a truck takes out that pole, both circuits go down together.
Ask each provider how its service enters your building and which network facility it connects back to. You won’t always get perfect answers, but asking the question often reveals a shared weak point.
Wireless options that don’t depend on a buried cable
A wired primary paired with a wireless backup is a common and sensible setup. The main wireless options:
Fixed wireless
A small antenna on your roof connects by radio to a provider’s nearby tower. It avoids the cables in the street, which makes it useful as a diverse path. It does need line of sight, and the provider’s tower needs power too.
5G/LTE failover
A cellular router that takes over when your primary line drops. It’s quick to deploy and relatively inexpensive, and it’s a solid choice for keeping essentials running. As the Milton numbers show, cell networks can be strained or damaged after a major storm, so treat it as one layer, not the whole plan. Choosing a different carrier than your phones use can add a little more diversity.
LEO satellite
Low-earth-orbit satellite service, such as Starlink through CommandLink, doesn’t rely on local cables or nearby towers at all, which makes it a genuinely different path. Practical considerations: the dish needs a clear view of the sky, it needs power, and it has to be mounted securely enough to survive high winds, or stored and redeployed after the storm. Plans and pricing change frequently, so compare current options when you buy.
SD-WAN: make failover automatic
Having two connections is half the job. The other half is switching between them without someone running to the server closet.
SD-WAN (software-defined wide area networking) sits on top of your connections and steers traffic across them. If one link fails or degrades, traffic moves to the other automatically. Many SD-WAN setups can also prioritize voice and critical apps over less important traffic, which matters when your backup link is slower than your primary.
For a single small office, a capable firewall or router with failover may be enough. For multiple locations, or where voice and cloud apps are critical, SD-WAN is often worth a look.
Keep the phones answering
Customers judge you by whether someone picks up. A few steps make that much easier:
- Use cloud phones. With a cloud-based phone system, your numbers live in the provider’s network, not in your building. If the office goes dark, staff can answer on mobile apps or laptops from wherever they are.
- Set up call forwarding and failover routing in advance. Decide where calls go if the office is unreachable: mobile phones, another office, or an answering service.
- Prepare an emergency greeting. Record a short “we’re operating remotely, here’s how to reach us” message now, so you can switch it on in seconds.
- Know how to make the change remotely. Make sure more than one person has admin access and knows the steps.
Test before the season, not during it
A failover you’ve never tested is a guess. Before each season:
- Unplug the primary connection and confirm the backup takes over, and that phones, VPN and key cloud apps still work.
- Check that your network equipment and backup devices are on battery backup or generator power, and know how long they’ll last.
- Confirm who to call at each provider, and keep account numbers somewhere you can reach without the office network.
- Walk through the plan with your team. Ready.gov’s IT disaster recovery planning guidance is a good free starting point.
Business internet backup checklist for Florida offices
- List every location and what it needs to stay running (phones, payments, cloud apps, VPN)
- Document your current circuits: provider, type, speed, contract end date
- Confirm your backup uses a different carrier AND a different physical path
- Choose a wireless layer: fixed wireless, 5G/LTE, LEO satellite, or a combination
- Set up automatic failover (SD-WAN or a failover-capable firewall)
- Put network gear on UPS or generator power, and know the runtime
- Move to cloud phones, or confirm your current system can forward calls off-site
- Pre-configure call forwarding and an emergency greeting
- Make sure at least two people can change routing remotely
- Keep provider contacts and account numbers available offline
- Run a full failover test before June 1, and again mid-season
How we can help
At Versutia Solutions, we help businesses design and source resilient connectivity without being tied to any one provider. With 400+ supplier relationships, we can compare carriers, check for path diversity, and line up the right mix of wired, wireless and satellite options. Start with our business internet and network solutions, and if phones are part of the picture, see our cloud phone and contact center work and our approach to cloud planning.
Get a free connectivity review
If you’re not sure whether your backup would actually hold up in a storm, let’s find out while the weather is calm. Schedule a free consultation and we’ll review your current setup and where it’s exposed.
Clem Thomas, Versutia Solutions
