Phone Lines Cut

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Phone Lines Cut

By Sarah Gravlee

Story Published: Jul 14, 2008 at 8:41 PM MST

Story Updated: Jul 14, 2008 at 8:41 PM MST

BILLINGS - Residents in many areas around Billings were without essential phone service for much of the day Monday as construction crews cut a major fiber optic line. The breech cut 911 services to Bridger, Columbus, Fromberg, Joliet, Laurel, Park City, Roberts and Red Lodge. It also affected Internet and long distance services to many of those areas and parts of Billings.

Officials with Qwest said an electrical company doing work in the area sliced the cable Monday morning at about 10:30. They said the cable was buried at least 36 inches under the ground and the area was marked to indicate that there was a cable there.

Crews worked for most of the day to repair the fiber optic cable, and restored service to all Qwest customers by about 3:45 p.m. Emergency services for many areas were re-routed through the Billings Dispatch Center, but the manager of that center said people were not able to call out and they didn't receive any phone calls from those areas.

Anne Kindness said if there were emergencies people either called the local number of dealt with it themselves. "Technology has brought us to a point where help is basically three digits away so when we lost the technology we're used to it does impact the quality of life," she said. "It does impact safety."

A spokesperson for Qwest said Sprint and AT&T lease space on Qwest cables. She said they have not been able to restore service to those customers yet.

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