Vandalism causes serious phone outages in upstate New York. (Courtesy: Verizon Communications)

Frontier Communications’ landline customers in Lewis and Oneida counties faced long distance service outages, while just about everyone in northern Oneida County is without both landline and cell phone service after fiber lines serving cell towers and landline customers were cut Monday.

The New York State Police have launched a criminal investigation into the sabotage, while Verizon Communications implies the damage might have come as a result of a strike against the company that began last weekend.

The largest outage, which cut off cell service and landlines, originated in Deerfield, where cables were severed.

Several upstate communities are facing lengthy service outages from a variety of acts of vandalism, most from cable cuts and damage to junction boxes.

Verizon has rushed out news releases regarding the damage, offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of individuals that intentionally damage Verizon cables or facilities or cause or attempt to cause physical injury to any Verizon employee or contractor.  Verizon urges anyone who witnesses sabotage of Verizon property or any suspicious activity to call 911 immediately, then call the Verizon Security Control Center at 1-800-997-3287.

Both sides of the dispute are now appealing to Congress to intervene, an action that may not bring immediate results.  Both the House and Senate are currently in their five-week summer recess.

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WKTV Utica Criminal investigation into cut phone lines that caused massive outages 8-9-11.mp4[/flv]

WKTV in Utica covers the impact of widespread landline and cell phone outages in Oneida County, upstate New York.  (1 minute)

[flv width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WRGB Albany Verizon Vandals 8-8-11.flv[/flv]

WRGB in Albany explores additional acts of vandalism in the Capitol District and gets reaction from striking workers about whether they were involved.  (3 minutes)