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UPDATE: Walworth County phones are working

By Ted Sullivan ( Contact ) July 2, 2008 - 12:22 p.m.

ELKHORN --- Walworth County residents can use their phones again after a damaged cable was repaired this afternoon, officials said.

Residents in parts of the county have been without phone service since 9 a.m. after a construction crew on Highway 50 damaged an AT&T Corp. fiber-optic cable, Walworth County Sheriff's Capt. Jay Maritz said.

The damage also kept people from using the Internet, fax machines, ATMs and credit-card machines.

Most of the home phones affected were in Delavan and Elkhorn, Maritz said. Phones in Whitewater, Lake Geneva and Pell Lake were working.

Depending on a person's location and service provider, cell phones in Walworth County were dead, he said.

The 911 center also was impacted by the loss of service.

People could call 911 from their cell phones if they were working, Maritz said.

And residents with land lines could call 911 from Elkhorn and Lauderdale Lakes -- even if their phones couldn't call anywhere else -- but the call was routed to the Walworth County Sheriff's Office, Maritz said.

Delavan residents could only call 911 from their cell phones, if they had service, he said.

Walworth County's 911 center uses Delavan's center as a backup, but Delavan also was down, Maritz said.

leesbunny
Jul 2, 2008 at 7:27 p.m.
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The construction crews are usually given a drawing of where the lines are. However, they are sometimes wrong. My husband's crew cut a fiber optic line in the City of Delavan a few years back because it was 16 inches off from where the phone company said it was.

rockstars
Jul 2, 2008 at 5:45 p.m.
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Ugh, it made my day long and boring. lol

JasonTh
Jul 2, 2008 at 3:15 p.m.
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It's amazing how many fiber lines get cut because of construction. They are so small, fragile, and critical... I'm glad they can enforce large fines on people who don't utilize diggers hotline.

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