Verizon Customers' Service Mostly Restored

By WYDaily Staff Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Verizon phone service returned to customers in the Historic Triangle early Wednesday morning.

Customers using landlines in James City County, Williamsburg and Upper York County lost service for more than 10 hours Tuesday when a utility contractor damaged several fiber-optic lines around 2 p.m. Verizon completed splicing the damaged lines and restored service to customers around 12:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Verizon spokesman Harry J. Mitchell said phone and Internet service to the majority of affected customers in Williamsburg and surrounding communities had been restored just before 5 p.m. by re-routing the services to other Verizon fiber-optic lines.

"Some customers’ service in the area remains affected by damaged fiber-optic lines the company cannot re-route, however. Verizon crews will continue to work until service to these customers is fully restored," Mitchell said Tuesday evening, before the crews had completed their work.

Attempts to phone someone on a Verizon land line in this service area had resulted in an "all circuits are busy" error, although Williamsburg-area residents and businesses were generally are able to make calls to, and receive calls from, callers with the same three-digit calling prefix. Calls from or to numbers outside their local calling area were not able to be made.

Mobile to mobile calls were unaffected, and 911 calls are continuing to be automatically rerouted to the York/Williamsburg/Poquoson Dispatch Center, city and county officials said.

Verizon customers who find they do not have a dial tone on their land line are instructed to use a cell phone to dial 911.