UTC Hearing on C-Link Outage: “Snapshot of Complex Situation”

— by Margie Doyle, Updated Dec. 11 at 10 a.m. —

The UTC wants to hear from you!

Members of the public join Washington Utilities and Transportation Commissioners in their investigation of CenturyLink during the Nov. 5-15 outage. Photo by Rick Hughes

“It is most important we hear from as many members of the public as possible,” Senator Kevin Ranker said at the beginning of the Washington Utilities & Transportation Commission (UTC)  investigation into the Nov. 5-15 CenturyLink outage. The meeting, scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. on Monday evening, Dec. 9, in Friday Harbor and video-streamed live, lasted for two and a half hours so that all public comments could be heard. WUTC Chair David Danner repeated several times that the regulatory UTC is interested in hearing from islanders impacted by the outage and gave the following contact information to do so:

• email: comments@utc.wa.gov
• phone during business hours – 888-333-WUTC (888-333-9882)

After presentations on the response and restoration by CenturyLink officials, the investigative hearing was dominated by the timeline, impact and communication efforts from islanders’ perspectives. Most islanders, government officials and business people, gave CenturyLink a failing grade in communications about the event. CenturyLink officials Mark Reynolds and Tim Grigar first explained the 10-day experience from their company’s perspective:

• the pre-dawn alarm on the morning of Nov. 5;
• the identification of the “severed” cable at 280 feet, 5,000 feet west of Lopez Island;
• the construction in 36 hours of the marine “Steel City” to make the repairs;
• the location of 6,000 feet of fiber optic cable;
• the re-installation of the cable;
• the assistance provided by Orcas Power & Light Cooperative (OPALCO);
• the efforts to communicate the situation to the public;
• the final restoration of service on Nov. 15;
• and the implementation of a half-months’ credit on service rates to telephone and internet customers. (According to Mark Reynolds, a mailing will go out to impacted customers and they “will not need to do anything.”)

When questioned by the UTC board and Senator Ranker, it was learned that CenturyLink had enough cable in reserve to make the repair. The cause of the break is still under investigation. Grigar mentioned the possibility of crab boat damage and mini-earthquakes, and said the cause was most likely “aging infrastructure.” The cable was laid in 1999, replacing nine-year old cable that had “suffered a break.” Grigar maintained that the cable, which appeared in photographs to be shredded, was indeed severed; that all the strands of fiber in the cable were tested.

He referred to plans for back-up systems as “diversity,” and described San Juan County as a “high-cost area.” Still, CenturyLink has a plan for an additional cable between the mainland and Friday Harbor.

Brendan Cowan, Director of Emergency Services for the county and for Friday Harbor, gave what he called, “clearly just a snapshot of a complex situation” from the perspective of local government. He outlined the major events in responding to the emergency sequentially, noting that:

• the break occurred before 4 a.m. on Nov. 5;
• Orcas Fire & Rescue discovered phones and 911 were not working and reported that to the county at 6:50 a.m.;
• the state was notified by radio of the outage at 6:55 a.m.
• through amateur radio operators, back-up 911 (analog) was in place about 10:30 a.m.
• amateur radio traffic indicated the cause was a submarine cable break at 2:22 p.m. and attempts were made to contact CenturyLink
• CenturyLink informed the county that they had been working on the problem for three hours at 4:13 p.m. and released its first press release at 8:11 p.m.; the second press release was issued 23 hours later, on Nov. 6 when 911 service was restored to Lopez Island;
• On Nov. 7  at 11:30 a.m. San Juan County was declared to be in a State of Emergency; Orcas long distance calling was restored at 7:45 p.m.;
•  CenturyLink held public forums on Nov. 13 on San Juan Island and Nov. 14 on Orcas Island;
• CenturyLink announced all services were restored at 10 a.m. on Nov. 15
• CenturyLink held its final public forum on Lopez Island.

Cowan gave an overview of the impacts of the outage, including failures of the following systems:

• medical alerts
• credit card transactions
• incoming calls to county CenturyLink customers
• CenturyLink voice mail systems
• burglar and fire alarms
• bank transactions
• hospital and pharmacy insurance verification and payments
• mental health crisis lines
• international border crossing

Cowan said, “We never had clear information … We were really in the dark as to who was on cable and how widespread the impact was.” He credited island neighbors who were out checking on each other, and said “We all look forward to working with your (UTC) team.”

Duncan Wilson, Friday Harbor Town Administrator, said, “There seemed to be a lack of initiative to get information out to a significant number of people.”

County Councilman Bob Jarman was blistering in his criticism of CenturyLink’s response to the problems caused by the outage. He said flatly, “This was bound to happen, and it did happen.” He left his employment with CenturyTel (CenturyLink’s precursor) in 2005, he said because the company was ignoring what “was bound to happen.”

The outage could have been avoided by maintenance and replacement that would have cost “what was spent in the first day of the outage,” Jarman said. “The hardship to the community was disastrous… and getting information from CenturyLink  was “very difficult,” Jarman said.

He recounted the numerous unsuccessful attempts to offer suggestions and facilitate assistance; culminating in the public meeting on Nov. 13 where the comments by CenturyLink regional president were “less than professional or even courteous.”

Jarman called upon the UTC to fine CenturyLink, and added that it “should pay ever account for all month. Some financial burden should be put back on CenturyLink. “We want to see some redundancy — a solid network and some guarantees.”

Councilman Rick Hughes noted that each island was affected differently by the cable break. He said, “Our community came to help each other out.”

Mike Greene, owner of Rock Island for 20 years, described his company as the largest DSL re-seller to 2,000 county customers. He recounted his repeated efforts from the first day to offer assistance to CenturyLink, suggesting that it “hand over” to Rock Island its DSL customer traffic, with no response from CenturyLink.

On Nov. 8 at 10 p.m., DSL service was restored to 40 percent of affected customers due to OPALCO’s efforts. Greene noted that Rock Island has had “redundancy in place since 1998.” Following the evening public forum on Nov. 12, when he made his “displeasure and frustration known,” CenturyLink finally agreed to have Rock Island take over CenturyLink’s DSL accounts. That took place on Nov. 13, and on Nov. 15, Century Link requested that Rock Island “swing the [DSL] traffic back, as its fibers had been restored.”

Greene described his direct losses as about $14,000 in refunds to his customers for lack of service. He was informed last Friday that his invoice to CenturyLink for refund of lost service was denied because he hadn’t submitted incident tickets and work orders; however during the outage, CentuiryLink wouldn’t take trouble tickets, and required instead a “master ticket.”

Greene said that CenturyLink placed “an unreasonable burden on my company to recoup losses due to their failure.” He asked the UTC to consider the hearing “a wake-up call… to hold more hearings regarding CenturyLink’s failures in rural areas. We need comparative alternatives; the community has suffered long enough.”

The UTC is interested in hearing from islanders impacted by the outage and gave the following contact information to do so:

• email: comments@utc.wa.gov
• phone during business hours – 888-333-WUTC (888-333-9882)