PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Some landline phone service was out for as many as 10,000 customers in Madawaska and Presque Isle on Dec. 30, according to the Aroostook County Emergency Management Agency.
The outage was reported by the agency around 1 p.m. on the last Friday of 2016, with affected customers also unable to use a landline to call 911.
Agency director Darren Woods said that he was notified about the disconnection on Friday, and later said that the service was restored Friday evening.
The outage did not impact every phone service company in those localities, and Woods added that the cause was not yet clear. Woods said that it is suspected that lines experienced a “fibercut,” an accidental break in an optical fiber.
The outage did not affect landline phone customers of Fairpoint Communications, according to a spokesperson for the company.
Cellphone service was unaffected. People were urged use their cellphones to contact 911 for emergency help.
