WATERVILLE — Phone and internet provider Consolidated Communications said repairs were completed and service was expected to be returned to all customers Wednesday after an underground cable was severed more than two weeks ago in Waterville.

Residential customers and businesses, including two Northern Light Health facilities and Robert LaFleur Airport, were affected after cables were damaged Jan. 10 by a subcontractor for Central Maine Power Co., according to CMP spokeswoman Catharine Hartnett.

Consolidated Communications does not release customer counts but the outage affected customers in the area of Kennedy Memorial Drive and West River Road, company spokeswoman Shannon Sullivan said in an email Tuesday. The repairs were extensive and involved work both underground and along streets, Sullivan said.

“Technicians have been on-site actively working to make repairs as quickly as possible,” Sullivan said. “We understand how important our customers’ service is and apologize for this inconvenience.”

The outage affected Northern Light Inland Hospital on Kennedy Memorial Drive, including its cardiovascular care practice and the hospital’s Continuing Care, Lakewood facility, as well as several medical practices in Oakland, according to Sara Berry, director of communications for the hospital.

Telephone service was restored to all facilities except Northern Light Continuing Care, Lakewood, Berry said in an email Wednesday.

Advertisement

Lakewood continues to use a temporary phone number, 207-275-1213, until the repairs are completed.

Northern Light Health had switched to backup telephone equipment and no day-to-day operations or patient care were affected, according to Kendall Bailey, Lakewood’s administrator.

“We have emergency phones in each of our units and at the main entrance, and we have been regularly communicating with residents’ families using a variety of methods: phone, email and in person,” Bailey said in an email.

Kimberly Lindlof, president and CEO of the Waterville-based Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce, said on Tuesday that she has heard from a handful of businesses that were affected by the outage.

She advised that if people still cannot get in touch with a business to call the Chamber at 207-873-3315. The Chamber has been conversing with Consolidated Communications about the repairs.

Waterville City Manager Steve Daly said the situation is disappointing and has caused “grief and concern” among residents and businesses.

Advertisement

“The fact that residences of the elderly lost phone service had to have been traumatizing for them,” Daly said.

Robert LaFleur Airport lost telephone and internet service from Jan. 10 until Friday, according to airport manager Randy Marshall. The airport is back to normal operation now, he said.

Several flights had to be canceled over the last two weeks, costing the airport money, because communications systems were down and pilots, the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Weather Service could not connect with the airport.

“We lost two weeks of flights,” Marshall said.

Some planes that were close by could still communicate by radio and land at the airport, Marshall said.

The airport didn’t look for an alternate service because Marshall didn’t think the outage would last as long as it did.

Susan Faloon, spokeswoman for the Maine Public Utilities Commission, said a report has not been filed by Consolidated on the outage. Reports are not required to be filed until 30 days later and only then if the PUC requests one, Faloon said.

Consolidated is an Illinois-based telephone and internet service provider that does business in 23 states.

Related Headlines


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.