Power outage threatens cell phone, landline services
4:38 p.m.
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by Lois Porter Herald Staff - Published: April 16, 2007
Telephone service in some parts of Vermont could be at risk due to the massive April snow storm which caused continuing power outages.
Verizon spokeswoman Jill Wurm said that the company's land lines are dependent on electricity at substations to continue operating. Each substation is equipped with back-up batteries which can continue operating for between four and eight hours, but as parts of the state remain without power for longer periods crews must bring generators out to re-charge the batteries, she said.
"Our intention, as always, is to keep service going," Wurm said. But, given the amount of the state without electricity and the length of some outages it is possible service could be lost in some spots.
Verizon, which provides roughly 300,000 land lines in Vermont, has also had approximately 40 poles snap due to snow and ice accumulation, Wurm said. That may also be preventing some customers from getting phone service.
"We have a number of broken poles throughout the state as well," she said. As always it is important for residents to stay away from downed poles and wires, Wurm said.
As for the generators, crews will use them to re-charge the substation batteries in areas that lost power first, and then move them to other spots.
And as power is restored, the company will bring the mobile generators to areas that still lack electricity.
"Once the electric comes back on we are going to come back and move them," Wurm said.
Cellular towers which provide coverage for mobile phones also rely on generators or battery power if utility power is lost.
Roughly 95 percent of the cellular sites Verizon Wireless has across New England have built-in generators which automatically kick in if commercial power is lost, Spokesman Mike Murphy said. Those generators power batteries, which can also be recharged with mobile generators in necessary, Murphy said.
"We anticipate being able to ride out the storm and continue to provide service," he said.
Chris Campbell, director of the division of the Vermont Department of Public Service which deals with telecommunications, said that state regulators are in the early stages of an inquiry into the loss of telephone service and the availability of backup power. That is an informal inquiry by the Public Service Board which the department is also involved in.
"We are not aware of this being a widespread, frequent, problem," he said. But "there certainly have been some incidents that have been reported to us from time to time".
"It is certainly something we are looking at," Campbell said.