— by Orcas Issues staff —
Telephone land lines for CenturyLink customers were out on Orcas Island yesterday, [Sunday, June 18] although internet and cell phone coverage was not affected.
Jeff Larsen, manning the Eastsound Fire Station, said that its land lines were out at the Station from about 5 a.m. to 5 p.m.
In an email from Mike Cini, CenturyLInk’s Manager Regional Operations sent at 5:16 p.m. on Sunday, June 18, he wrote:
“CenturyLink is experiencing an outage impacting dial-tone service for customers on Orcas Island. Specifically, Orcas Island customers have no dial-tone and cannot place or receive calls from their landline.
“Customers can reach the E911 dispatchers using cellular service. High Speed internet and cell service are not impacted. Technicians are on site and working with tech support to restore service.”
Sheriff Ron Krebs said, “It seems Centurylink believes it may have been a lightning strike that caused the outage. I don’t know, I didn’t think there was lightning conditions yesterday, but who knows. The phones were restored completely yesterday at 7:05 pm.”
In OPALCO’s latest update to progress on the Subamarine Cable installation, it wrote in the June 13 newsletter:
“The timeline for OPALCO’s submarine cable replacement project has been impacted by complications with CenturyLink’s deteriorating cable in the same crossing, which has shifted and overlapped with OPALCO’s cable in several places on the sea floor.
“With OPALCO’s input and support, the permitting agencies have allowed CenturyLink to start their work in mid-June, one month earlier than OPALCO begins their construction. There remains a possibility that CenturyLink’s fiber optic cable could break during the work effort this summer, which would cause communication outages for phone and DSL customers across the County. Countywide e911 service would be maintained through an alternate route. OPALCO is preparing to put its available capacity and redundancy to work to help our members maintain essential services in case of an emergency outage, but will not be able to cover all of demand during the busy summer season.
“Stay tuned for more information.”
To sign up for the OPALCO newsletter, go to https://www.opalco.com/newsroom/email-newsletter-sign-up/
Thanks to Artha Kass, Jeff Larsen and Suzanne Olson
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Our landlines in Westsound were out Friday until this morning when I was scheduled for a repair. Coincidence or connection?
Our lines have got the “snap, crackle and pop” back, and bad.
I almost read that headline as “CenturyLink Outrage…”
https://www.columbian.com/news/2017/jun/16/centurylink-accused-of-scheme/
Yes we live on an Island, and yes we do have inconvences. But to loose our 911 capabilities.. Orcas Fire and Rescue responds the best they can, which means manning all stations as always.. doing their best to be prepared for what ever comes their way.. when such situations like this arise.
This really is disturbing at this day and age of technology that we find ourselves still fumbiling with communications.
It’s a poor use of our community’s resoures and our people in the community that volunteer thier family time to serve for the greater good and benifit of us all.
May some entity step up to resolve this silly recurring issue.
Unacceptable to have our emergency capacities down with not a word from Century Link!
Is anyone else still having problems? Suddenly this week, I cannot get any answering machine to pick up my calls – a friend finally told me about the problem because she kept not getting through. I had wondered why no phone messages were coming in. (There is nothing wrong with either answering machine – one is brand new.)
Called CenturyLink – they said it would be $87 for them to determine if the problem is inside – and they couldn’t even give a quote of what the actual “repair” might cost, but I’m guessing over 100 bucks.