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Title: Davis phone outage one of US West's largest

Company says 4,000 customers will receive credit on phone bills

Thursday, April 06, 2000

By LORETTA PARK Standard-Examiner Davis Bureau

CLEARFIELD -- One of the largest and longest phone outages in US West history -- a construction accident that left 4,000 customers without service -- is nearly over after almost a week.

US West said Wednesday that the thousands of customers whose phone lines were cut last Friday will receive credit on their phone bills for the days they were without service.

"Customers are entitled to a credit whenever they've been out of service more than 24 hours," said Michael Frandsen, US West spokesman.

Those who called in to report that their phone was out of service will automatically receive credit on their next phone bill, he said. Those who did not call in but believe they meet the same criteria should call US West's business office at (800) 244-1111 and request credit, he said.

An errant construction dig at 900 W. 300 North in Clearfield left customers in Clearfield, West Point, Syracuse, Clinton, Hooper and unincorporated areas of Davis County without phone service since Friday afternoon. It is considered one of the largest and longest phone outages in US West's history, Frandsen said.

"The damage was the worst one of our workers had ever seen in his 32 years with the company," Frandsen said.

Helen Marble of West Point said she commends US West for how quickly they were able to get that many customers back on line.

"My phone is working perfectly. It came back on last night (Tuesday). It was a major relief. I commend the phone company for how well they got us back on line with as big of a problem as this was," Marble said.

Shifts of eight crew members worked on the problem 24 hours a day until Wednesday, Frandsen said. Each line had to be spliced individually and in some of the more remote areas, crews had to go to the houses and test each phone to make sure there was a dial tone and that each line was connected to the right phone number, he said.

Each individual customer's line was different, so some received service as early as Saturday, while others' phones rang Wednesday, Frandsen said.

"Unfortunately with this sort of cut, there is no way to get around that you have to individually splice each line and then test it. It is possible there are still isolated cases of trouble," Frandsen said.

Customers who still are experiencing trouble should call (800) 573-1311.

You can reach reporter Loretta Park at 776-4951 or lpark@standard.net. 

http://www1.standard.net/stories/local/04-2000/FTP0121@local@06phones@Ogden.asp

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-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), April 06, 2000