Most phone lines repaired
Embarq Corp., the dominant local exchange telephone company, said Thursday that it has restored service to many customers who lost service a day earlier.
A heavy-equipment operator working on a sanitary sewer installation in downtown Las Vegas accidentally cut through underground lines for 60,000 voice, wireless, Internet and data customers Tuesday morning. The outage affected customers east of the construction site, Stewart Avenue and Seventh Street, stretching from the Las Vegas Valley to Boulder City and Laughlin.
Late Thursday morning, Embarq had restored service to 15,000 of 20,000 customers who rely on Embarq for land-line voice communications, said spokeswoman Vicki Soares. In addition, all cellular phone service, Internet and data service was restored, she said.
The phone company reconnected all federal, state and local government offices that lost phone service by 11:30 p.m Wednesday.
Embarq workers on Thursday were preparing lines for splicing and pulling cable that needed to be replaced. The company expects crews to continue working through Sunday when all of the remaining lines are expected to be functioning. The company ordered large cable from Brownwood, Texas, and was expecting it to be delivered early today.
