The T-Mobile retail store, located at 400 Veterans Boulevard, is allowing area residents to place free phone calls to friends and family. The store is also able to exchange phones for T-Mobile customers whose phones were lost or damaged when Katrina hit.

"People were clapping when the doors opened this morning," said Mike Schwager, T-Mobile retail regional manager. "The local police were able to bring in an elderly couple and help exchange their storm damaged phone so they could once again talk with their family."

T-Mobile has restored its wireless coverage in the Gulf Coast areas hit hardest by Hurricane Katrina to either normal service levels or near normal service levels. T-Mobile's Disaster Recovery Team, working around the clock following Katrina's devastation, has repaired or restored service to many of its existing cell sites in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama damaged by the hurricane.

T-Mobile is also offering free Wi-Fi service at all T-Mobile HotSpot locations in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama through the end of the month.