Business & Tech

Verizon, AT&T Outages Causing Problems for Power Companies

Electric companies are having trouble reaching line technicians to tell them to report to work.

Update: Sunday - 2:25 p.m.

Verizon is dealing with "a number of technical and mechanical challenges, in addition to storm damage such as downed poles and trees on our wires," said Harry Mitchell, a Verizon spokesman.

One of the biggest challenges has been a power failure at one of the Verizon facilities in Arlington, which has made it more difficult for some callers to dial 911 in Prince William and Fairfax Counties. 

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"We’re working late hours – often around the clock – and bringing in additional technicians from other parts of our service area to assist in bringing service back as quickly as we possibly can.  We appreciate customers’ continued patience as we work to restore services in the wake of one of the worst storms in recent memory."

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Original post - Saturday, June 30

Widespread outages in the Verizon and AT&T networks are causing problems not only for mobile and home customers, but also for electric companies in Northern Virginia. 

Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative officials said they haven't been able to reach all their line technicians and operations personnel to ask them to report to work. NOVEC is asking all its line technicians to report to work, even if they didn't receive a phone call, NOVEC spokesman Mike Curtis said.

AT&T spokeswoman Kate MacKinnon issued this statement Saturday afternoon:

“Due to damaging storms that have knocked out power across the Midwest and Northeast regions of the country, some AT&T customers in impacted areas in Virginia and Washington, D.C. may be experiencing issues with wireless service.

AT&T technicians across the affected areas are mobilized and currently working to resolve the issues, including the deployment of generators and repairing storm-damaged facilities.

We apologize for any inconvenience to our customers and will continue to closely monitor and help coordinate the recovery efforts through our Global Network Operations Center."

From Verizon spokesman Harry J. Mitchell:

"The severe storms that hit the Washington metropolitan area Friday night – and the resulting power outages that have affected much of the region – have also affected services for some Verizon customers. Our operations teams currently are assessing the impact and are working to restore service as quickly as possible."


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