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In Sandy's wake, Verizon stores offer free charging, domestic calls

Verizon has also rolled out a fleet of mobile communications centers to West Virginia, Ohio, and New Jersey – all areas hit hard by the storm. 

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Verizon
In the wake of the storm, Verizon is offering free device charging and domestic calls at select retail stores.
  • By Matthew Shaer

Verizon is rolling out a fleet of mobile charging stations to West Virginia, Ohio, and New Jersey residents affected by Hurricane Sandy. At each Wireless Emergency Communication Center, as Verizon calls the trucks, you can charge your phone or in some cases hop on a laptop to send relatives an email. You can find a full list of station locations here – and no, you don't need to be a Verizon customer to take advantage of the service. 

Meanwhile, at least for the time being, charging and domestic calls are free at Verizon stores across the northeast. 

As Marguerite Reardon of CNET notes today, compared to rival AT&T, Verizon – which saw its NYC headquarters flooded – seems to be doing pretty well. 

"Anecdotally, Verizon Wireless service has fared better than service from other carriers in parts of New York and New Jersey, where the storm has done the most damage. But there have been complaints of poor service on Long Island, as well as in Lower Manhattan," she writes. 

In related news, PC Magazine reports that Verizon has installed a temporary wireless antenna in Jersey City, which was hit especially hard by the storm. The company is working simultaneously to restore data service to other parts of the New York metro area. 

"Verizon has been able to reroute and restore critical services at several key facilities that were affected by the historic flooding and subsequent power outages on Monday night," a Verizon rep told PC Magazine. "Company engineers and technicians have returned several of these facilities to normal operations, and efforts continue to restore the remaining facilities."

For more tech news, follow us on Twitter @venturenaut.

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