Verizon, Time Warner customers suffered phone and internet service outage which lasted for six long hours. Although Verizon claimed that the outage was experienced in Wake, Durham and Orange counties, customers from Lee, Nash, Wilson, and Wayne also complained about a similar issue. Users were unable to make or receive calls. Some of them managed to send text messages but most weren’t able to do anything. Verizon users who reside in North Carolina confirmed having trouble in receiving calls. Same was the case with Time Warner customers. They also experienced interrupted phone calls. Both, prepaid phone service and post-paid phone services were affected by the outage.

Reason for the outage

Time Warner spokesperson, Scott Pryzwansky clarified that the outage took place due to a fault in the fiber which was created by a third party during construction. “Our fiber…that serves customers in the area as well as the Verizon cell tower [was damaged],” said Pryzwansky. “Our crews are on site working to repair the fiber as quickly as possible.”

Clarification given

Verizon stores were full with complaining customers this Monday evening. The outage affected many people, especially those who run their business online. The outage turned out to be inconvenient for thousands of local home phone service users as the customers were also unable to call for an emergency at 911 during the interruption.

Dominick Nutter, the director of the Wake County Emergency Communications Center, happily announced that luckily, this wasn’t a major issue and we were able to resolve it in a very short span of time. He countered that few customers weren’t able to make emergency calls but many calls were going through. “Anytime someone is unable to call by the phone, by all means, text us. But, if you are able to talk, we definitely would prefer you to talk because we can get emergency responders out to you much faster,” Nutter said. All home phone providers got fed up due to constant complaints from their customers.

Sadly, Holly Springs Police Department had to finally set up an emergency mail account for those Verizon customers who didn’t have landline or cellphone service. The outage taught how the world has become dependent on technology and its devices. “You need it today in this world to make anything happen,” said Moon.

However, Verizon managed to restore its services around 9:30 pm on the same day and appreciated users for bearing the inconvenience due to the six-hour outage.