robert mudge, are there limits to technology when it comes to this? 40% of americans are now landline less. they don't have a landline, they just have cell phones. >> guest: even at the heart of the storm, our wireless network was operating at 94% capacity. we argued back to full capacity pre-store. so i think that many people, not just through the telecommunications, but with the power outage, learned and found out the electricity is very important along with telecommunications. i think it's a reminder for many of our customers that good wireline service is very helpful. because they can help offset each other. >> host: the so-called triple play packages offered by bryson and others, do they have the same reliability as the old-style telephones for the copper wires and etc.? >> guest: i think there is a little bit of a difference, but by and large, we have seen that fiber is more resilient than copper. it will impact fios, so there can be emergency calling. going back to your other point, there is a crossover with wireless usage. the ability to make

and now joining us from basking ridge, new jersey, is robert mudge who is the president of consumer and mass business markets for verizon. mr. mudge, what was the overall effect of hurricane sandy on verizon in the northeast? >> guest: hi, peter, thank you for having me, and i want to get right into that, but first, i can't help but say how much my heart goes out to all the people i've seen and the millions of impacted customers and other people from this storm. and it's been great to be out with our employees and see what people are coming through together. so, peter, this was a pretty impactful storm, as you know. it hit us right, right in the middle of our operating area in new jersey and calm at us -- came at us with a path that was a thousand miles wide. so it impacted us both in our physical distribution plant, our poles and our cables as you might expect both from the wind and from the storm surge and in our central office facilities where we lost power, and our back-up power process really had to kick in and carry over 300 central offices that were impacted at the peak of the st

. >> robert mudge it is president of the consumer and business mass-market for verizon. you are watching "newsmake"the communicators" on c-span. as we continue our look at the impact of hurricane sandy, we're joined by harold feld, a senior vice president of public knowledge. we have talked to ctia and horizon. both groups -- and verizon. both groups said that wireless services did well during sandy. >> my assessment is that some networks did well. we do not have solid information about this, there are no reporting requirements on these networks. there are no standards by which we measure their performance. it is entirely voluntary, whether they want to talk to the fcc or state and local governments or not. i take their word for it that they responded well. what i have anecdotally heard, some of these guys did less well. who did well, who did not do well, and how do we make sure that everyone is doing well? >> how do we make sure everyone is doing well? >> mitt romney said in a primary that if you can delegate stuff like fema from the federal government to the states or