Most areas in Louisiana and Mississippi hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina lack both landline and wireless telephone service at this time, according to BellSouth and Cingular, the largest wireless provider in the area.

As of 5 pm Monday, the last time Cingular provided an update, areas in New Orleans through Gulfport, Miss., had interrupted service. Cingular reported Monday that calls were still going through, but at greatly reduced levels. Another update is expected this evening.

It’s expected that wireless customers in the affected areas will have no signal or minimal signal due to towers being out of service, and phones attempting to reach other towers farther away.

Cingular advises customers to attempt to send text messages, rather than make calls. A phone needs to have only a minimal signal for a few seconds to send or receive a text message, while the signal needs to be available for much longer in order to make a call.

Sprint Nextel announced that it is standing by to enter the affected areas to restore service as soon as state and local officials give clearance.

Most landline telephones in the greater New Orleans and Gulfport/Biloxi areas are out of service at this time. BellSouth officials have not yet speculated on how long it may take to restore service. After losing commercial power, a central office can typically only maintain telephone service on battery backup for a few hours. After that point, diesel generators must be connected to provide longer-term service.

Due to extensive flooding in New Orleans, BellSouth has been largely unable to get diesel generators into the area, or up and running if already there.

Martial law has been declared in New Orleans and officials do not expect to allow residents back into Jefferson Parish for at least a week due to flooding caused by a levee breach.

Phone Watch will continue to provide updates on telephone service in southeast Louisiana and southern Mississippi as we are able to get information out of the affected areas.