Phone, Internet, cable out for many

• By CHRIS GAUTREAU
• Advocate business writer
• Published: Sep 3, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Residents who lost telephone, Internet or cable service Monday likely will be without it until utility crews secure power lines and restore electrical service.

Conventional, land-line telephones appeared to be working Tuesday. But cell-phone service deteriorated as towers and distribution sites left inaccessible by storm damage exhausted their initial backup-power supplies.

Local providers began repair efforts Tuesday, though they cautioned the work would be slow and methodical.

AT&T said Tuesday it mobilized a team of 2,000 workers for repairs. But Bill Oliver, head of AT&T’s Baton Rouge market, said progress would depend on how quickly utility and parish-government crews could cut their way through to some areas.

Oliver said AT&T crews repaired much of the initial damage to the company’s fiber-optic network. But more damage appeared after the brunt of Hurricane Gustav moved on.

He said the company suspected that, as homeowners began removing downed trees, the branches or trunks moved, snapping lines again.

Andy Moreau, an Arkansas-based spokesman for Alltel, said company crews also began repairs Tuesday. Like other companies, Moreau said Alltel’s biggest problems are power and conventional phone line outages, both of which are needed for cell service to work.

Verizon Wireless said in an e-mail that 90 percent of its Gulf Coast network is operating and that it is dispatching technicians and generators to Louisiana.

Verizon said it pre-deployed “Cells on Wheels” and “Cells on Light Trucks” and several dozen mobile generators to strengthen its Gulf Coast network.

Internet, e-mail and cable are still possible through Cox Communications. But The company, which also provides phone service, said 99 percent of its distribution nodes in East Baton Rouge and 64 percent in Lafayette were without power.

“Power is our issue,” Cox spokeswoman Sharon Kleinpeter said.

Trae Russell, a spokesman for Eatel in Gonzales, said that 3,400, or about 10 percent, of the company’s transmission lines were inoperable, most of them confined to rural, lower Livingston Parish.

Russell said those remaining Eatel customers who get services via fiber-optic cabling should be able to regain service if they know how to connect a portable generator to the battery that powers their individual network connection.