Phone Service Lost Due To Cut Cable

A severed fiber optic cable in Terrell left the Wills Point and Edgewood areas without phone service and other communications for part of Monday.

The phone outages began Monday morning in Wills Point and spread to Edgewood later that afternoon. Later in the day, businesses reported a loss of cell phone, e-mail and Internet services as well.

AT&T spokesperson Sarah Andreani confirmed the service interruption began about 9:10 a.m. and service was restored about 4 p.m.

"The fiber optic line in Terrell was cut by a contractor doing road construction," Andreani said. She did not have the name of the contractor.

Dialing from within the 873 exchange in Wills Point was still possible, but only by dropping the 903 area code that is usually necessary.

Andreani termed that as "being isolated," meaning callers could not dial to or receive calls from outside the 873 prefix.

"Since it was a fiber optic cable that was cut, and that is what connects cities together, anyone calling in wouldn’t have been able to get through because the call can’t get through the line that was severed.

"However, all the lines that are within a city or exchange are still functioning," Andreani explained.

The biggest concern during the outage was with the loss of 9-1-1 service from landline phones, Wills Point Police Department dispatcher Deborah Davis said.

"I’m worried about people being able to reach us if they have an emergency, or if they know they can still call us by dropping the 903," she said.

For part of the day, Davis had to use her personal cell phone to reach law enforcement officials outside Wills Point.

She also said several people came by the police department on Monday, asking about the sudden loss of phone service.

Beverly Cornwell, director of operations for Hill Insurance Agency in Wills Point, described the office as "eerily quiet" because of the service interruption.

"We can’t make calls to our (insurance) carriers," she said. "If we can’t use e-mail to reach them, we have to turn to our personal cell phones."

The agency’s customers — or at least those outside of Wills Point — not being able to call was a bigger concern for Cornwell.

"Sometimes it’s new business or current customers adding an auto policy or new endorsements….we can’t anticipate those calls," she said.

Lorie Isaacs, owner of Bluebird Café in Wills Point, said the phone outage had a big effect on her usual volume of call-in orders.

"I sent out a couple of employees to go around and tell people they could at least call locally," she said, referring to numbers within the 873 exchange.

Isaacs estimated the café normally gets 75 to 100 phone orders for breakfast and lunch per day.

That afternoon, the service interruption affected Edgewood and its surrounding area.

Edgewood Police Chief Henry Askew said phone service within the city was operating normally until about 2:30 p.m., when he was suddenly cut off while on the phone with a bank.

A spokesperson for Edgewood ISD said personnel on duty had to turn to the intercom system to get in touch with people in other buildings.

The loss of cell phone, e-mail and Internet service during part of the afternoon was due to the repair work taking place, Andreani said.

This outage affected most everyone in the county.

She said the line was "only partially severed," which allowed the repair crew to do splicing work and get services restored before the end of the business day.