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Isaias shook the East Coast toppled trees and limbs onto power lines and utility poles, leaving hundreds of thousands in a lurch as they lost electricity and cellular services.
In the days following the storm, there has been a bevy of complaints coming from power-provider and Internet/WiFi customers who are eager to get back to normal while still combating the COVID-19 crisis.
Many have noted that they’ve been unable to get in touch with tech support at Optimum, while others found that Optimum had no answer as to when they would have their services restored.
“As you probably know, this storm caused widespread damage,” John Dullaghan, Altice’s government liaison said. “The vast majority of the service-related issues for our customers relate to commercial power impacts.
“To the extent that there are impacts on our plant due to the storm, we need to ensure the situations are safe (no live electrical wires) prior to proceeding,” Dullaghan continued. “We are working as fast as we can to restore services if the outage is not related to loss of commercial power.
“There can certainly be scenarios where power dips (on then off) which is typically the result of our services coming on and dropping again.”
On social media, Optimum posted: “Severe weather events such as Tropical Storm Isaias greatly impact the restoration process and our teams are working hard to get your services restored.”
In response to the outcry, Optimum provided new information about the service restoration process that takes place during severe weather events.
Optimum noted that electrical power is needed to operate cable and internet services, including power to devices in homes and business locations like TVs, set-top boxes and modems. It also includes power to our network facilities and equipment located in the area.
If electricity to one’s home or business location has been restored and one is still unable to access Optimum services, it could be because the power that feeds their network comes from a different commercial power source than the power that feeds the home or business location.
“Technicians often cannot begin work until the power company completes their repairs, so customers may experience some lag time between when power is restored and their Optimum services are restored,” officials noted.
“Downed trees, power lines and other weather-related issues create damage that makes access unsafe for our employees and customers, so we must take precautionary measures to ensure service is restored in a safe manner.”
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