Damaged Lines on Welsh Island
 

Dan,

Any idea if the damaged phone lines (Christmas storm) are being repaired?
Our cams have been down all winter so we have no idea who's been peeing on our property.

Mark

Don't look at me!!!

Hi Mark;

The island is a disaster with trees down everywhere! The phone / internet lines are laying on the ground for quite a distance. I haven’t seen anyone out here.

If I were you I would definitely call to inform them of the situation. I don't have an account with them anymore since I switched to Hub66.

Dan

Hbu66
 

I agree with Dan. HUB66 is the way to go. I think you can tell from their web site if you're able to get service from one of their towers. They put a repeater on our property to feed a neighbor who otherwise was not line of sight.

Pics
 

Mark;

Here’s a few pics i took today to show you the damage that occurred. I would estimate there is approximately 300 yards of downed phone/internet line…

Dan

Thanks for the pictures Dan. My brother in law (near us on welch) also sent me some pics back in December. 300 yards of down lines is a lot of work.

Mark

As of this morning the phone lines are still on the ground both north and south of the island entry point. The line to the south appears unbroken however the northern line is severed.

I used the automated system to enter a "support ticket" on 4/16. Consolidated has had trucks at Glendale, one with empty boat trailer. However there has been no observed activity on Welch.

I called today 1st tech support and then was connected to line repair. The ticked that I entered on the automated system did not get through to line repair. They initiated a new ticket and said that a crew will be out on Monday 5/1 with service restored by 6PM that day. Given the extent of the damage all that I can hope for is that they actually get started on Monday.

Alan

Alan, is the island power currently on? My neighbors cameras were online until today which leads us to believe CC might be working on repairing / re-hanging the lines. Or the power might be off.

I also have an open ticket. Our cameras have been offline since Dec.

We're opening up next week.
Fingers crossed.

Mark

Power
 

Island power is currently on at least at my place...

Dan

Same here, north branch has power. Don't know about the south branch.

Alan

Hey... My cameras are back up.

Update: CC called me to check if my internet was up and let me know that it was a temporary fix. The cables are probably still on the ground.

Mark

Mark,

Are you on the north branch? There is one spot where all of the twisted pairs are pulled from each end of a connection block. They might have spliced your two pair back together. A neighbor south of us said that they had been there.

However no temp fix or phone call here.

Alan

Yes, end of north branch. They rigged my neighbors line a couple weeks ago too. I was puzzled that her internet was working while mine wasn't. Now we figured out they're splicing individual lines and the damaged main bundle is still on the ground. Apparently they don't splice a customer line unless there's a service ticket opened.

Mark

The lines are basically a horseshoe coming onto the island at the point closest to the mainland and splitting there, north and south. Muskat (15) would be the last house on the north branch, so 22 is north branch.

We got the temporary internet fix today with our two pair of wires spliced at the break point. Nice not having to run on hot spots and also to have YouTube TV.

One tech said one week to a permanent fix but maybe 2 weeks. All of the downed wire on both branches to be replaced.

Alan

This would be a great opportunity for them to run fiber.

Fiber?
 

Wouldn't the underwater cable have to be replaced to do fiber? As far as I can tell, Hub66 and Starlink are at least equal
to fiber. Wires, fiber or otherwise, outperform at catching trees.

Yes as far as I know, I figured since have been getting major subsidies for rural broadband expansion they'd find a way to make it profitable.

You are right though Hub 66 is fiber speeds. I have never used starlink though.

Still no activity by CC to repair the down lines on Welch.

Alan

We can't even get them to do their job on the mainland, it's not the workers at fault, it's their piss poor management. I wouldn't be surprised if that stuff sat on the ground all summer. they are notorious for refusing to replace damaged poles that they have ownership of, even during an emergency. I don't understand why the PUC lets them get away with it.

Poles and Wires...
 

Just advise CC that you'll be fixing the wires and poles yourselves.

That ought to get their attention!

;)

Back to the Future?
 

It wasn't that long ago that we had propane lights, fridge and stoves. When we encouraged folks to get electricity in 1959, it was easy enough to get the minimum of 30 camps to sign on and pay the $150 deposit. Not enough people wanted phones, so that was delayed some years. Now, we're doing away with landline phones and DSL in favor of cell phones and Hub66. That declining market does not encourage CC to provide better service. Islanders are probably a losing operation for them.

Breezeline is no better. They didn’t even know there was a problem at our place since the fire last week. The tree and associated fire took out the cable to at least 3 of us, maybe 5 and they didn’t even know until I called. To top it off the only service bear on Thursdays, and only if we provide transportation. I have a funny feeling come Thursday they still don’t have it fixed.

My problems with them on the mainland were much worse, finally ditched them and went to Xfinity.

I agree! Things went downhill fast when the company in Texas bought them and they had no idea what a very rural operation Verizon was in NH and VT etc. Best decision Verizon made was to sell it off and pocket the money.

I'm very happy with Hub66 on the island, other option was going to be Starlink. with NHEC starting to run fiber, and the other options available, I have the same feeling that Consolidated would be happy to have the island customers disappear

It's another beautiful day on the water, enjoy it!! -PIG

CC was on island today. The 25 pair cable was replaced from behind #54 to the entry point between #58 and #59. We now have hardwired DSL replacing the spliced temp fix. The old cable is still on the ground.
The cable on Descant's branch is still down as there is an ongoing septic install at #60.

Alan

Alan,

Any idea if CC is still working on the lines?
My cameras have been working since they spliced my damaged wires last month and were working this morning but now they're offline again.

Mark

Mark, no idea as we left this morning are off island. I did get an alert that connection to our heat pump gateway was lost at 10:45 am today but it is now back online and our weather station is also online.

Alan

Yeah, they were working on the lines today. Cameras are back up.

Mark