In most Third World countries, cellular phone networks are the primary means of electronic communications because of the expense of installing land lines, said William Hughes, director of consulting company Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery Center of Excellence at SunGard Availability Services.

"It's a country that depends on tourists and agriculture. They're not very advanced from an IT perspective. That's what's going to drive things during this recovery," he said.

Trilogy, which provides service for the Voila Comcel mobile network, said it had restored the network by midnight Sept. 13 and began sending members of its disaster recovery team around to each of the 300 or so cell towers in Haiti to check the infrastructure for damage. Trilogy provides cellular service to about 1 million Haitians, Saxton said.

While the network is up, the power is not sustainable, she said. Even before the earthquake, Haiti's grid only provided for about eight hours of daily power. Diesel generators were required for the remainder of any given day.

Trilogy has so far been able to verify that all of Voila's buildings in the country are has accounted for all of its staff, the vast majority of whom are nationals. "Most of our employees we're just trying to keep safe at this point," Saxton said.