Subscribe911 Nightmare! After the ink was dry on the approval to transfer Verizon customers to FairPoint Communications, and the transition had begun, the foreshadowing of problems started in the late spring of 2008 when Maine experienced several 911 system crashes and outages, putting safety at risk for citizens whose urgent pleas for help went unanswered for hours at a time.
WMTW in Portland led the newscast on May 19th with the latest developments:
Two months later, another emergency meeting was held to insist on some profound changes to keep these “human error” problems on the part of FairPoint from bringing down a community’s emergency response system. WCSH Portland covered the meetings in their newscast on July 15th:
[flv width=”480″ height=”360″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WCSH Portland Multiple 911 Failures Plague FairPoint Maine 07-15-08.flv[/flv]
The sobering impact of the failures earlier that year were made clear by the fire chief of an impacted community in a follow-up report from WCSH in Portland the next day:
[flv width=”480″ height=”360″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WCSH Portland Cumberland County 911 Calls Go Unanswered 07-16-08.flv[/flv]
It came as quite a surprise after repeated promises from company officials that these 911 outages and failures would be stopped, when less than two weeks later, it happened all over again. This time, in Cumberland County’s dispatch center in Maine. Local officials plainly stated they were starting to question confidence in FairPoint Communications’ ability to manage basic emergency telephone systems across the area.
FairPoint Communications was back with more excuses and promises as well, as WCSH Portland reported on July 29th.
[flv width=”480″ height=”360″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WCSH Portland 911 Service Crashes in FairPoint Service Area in Maine 07-29-08.flv[/flv]
Some defenders of the FairPoint deal always suggest that competition already provides the safety valve for customers to escape providers that don’t offer an expected level of service. But as we can see here, competition in any form won’t stop a 911 call from going unanswered when an incumbent phone company won’t ensure the call gets through.
