Spectrum says there may be some refunds for customers affected by a big outage that happened last Saturday.
That outage lasted for several hours on Saturday afternoon and it affected customers in Upstate New York, including the Rochester area, and parts of Maine and New Hampshire.
Most of the problems reported had to do with cable TV service, although some internet customers were also affected. Spectrum officials said that the issue was related to damaged fiber in the network, and winter storm damage also made it difficult for crews to access the equipment that had to be repaired.
Spokesperson Laura Pritchard says that credits for lost service will be worked out with customers who contact the company individually.
Meantime, a Central New York Congressman, Anthony Brindisi, released a statement on Monday demanding answers from the company and calling on the New York State Public Service Commission to investigate.
Brinidisi’s open letter asks for Spectrum to explain not only the cause of last weekend’s outage but also what measures are in place in ensure redundancies. The congressman also asks whether Spectrum violated any mandates as it relates to its service agreement with New York state.
The New York State Public Service Commission provided this statement:
The Department of Public Service is currently investigating last weekend’s Spectrum outages as well as the impact that the winter storm had on electric utilities and other telecommunications networks. The Department has had a continuous dialogue with the Company since the first outages occurred and will follow up with a series of formal interrogatory questions to the Company to determine the root cause of the widespread network interruption, scope of customers and services impacted, outage timeline and steps taken to restore services. The Department will assess the Company’s response and report to the Public Service Commission as necessary.
