Tuesday’s rush hour in South Florida featured a lot fewer commuters talking on their AT&T cell phones while driving.  The reason?  They couldn’t.

A massive AT&T service outage extending from Broward County to the Florida Keys caused wireless chaos for some customers yesterday, many showing up at AT&T stores looking for answers why they could not make or receive calls or launch 3G data sessions with the carrier.

The outage, which began shortly after 6pm, reportedly blocked cell phone calls and data sessions, and was eventually traced to a switch outage in Broward County.  Customers who rely on their AT&T cell phones were annoyed at the loss of service, particularly emergency responders and medical personnel who found their phones useless until around 10pm, when service was eventually restored.

AT&T customers told reporters they were also irritated by the lack of information from the company about the outage; some were even told there were no service problems in the area when they called AT&T for information.

When AT&T realized there was a problem, the company released a statement.

“AT&T technicians quickly worked to resolve the issue, and service is now running normally,” said AT&T spokesperson Kelly Starling. “We apologize for any inconvenience to our customers.”

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WFOR Miami ATT Restores 3G Cell Service After 3 Hour Outage 6-28-11.mp4[/flv]

WBFS/WFOR-TV in Miami took a deeper look into yesterday’s massive cell phone failure for AT&T customers.  (3 minutes)

Bright House Networks, a cable company primarily serving Florida and other southeastern states says it has no plans to implement Internet Overcharging schemes like usage caps or consumption billing.  But a company spokesperson went even farther, telling Tampa Bay Online the cable company was not even considering them.

Bright House, which relies on Time Warner Cable’s programming negotiators and sells broadband under the Road Runner brand, was among the only companies in Florida that was willing to go on record stating they were not considering limiting broadband customers.

Other providers were unwilling to follow Bright House’s lead:

• AT&T: “2 percent of our customers were using 20 percent of our bandwidth,” said an AT&T spokesman, so the company slapped 150GB usage limits on DSL customers, 250GB on U-verse customers.  The overlimit fee is $10 for every 50GB extra.
• Verizon Florida: “At this point, we’ve not implemented any usage controls or broadband caps.  We’ll continue to evaluate what’s best to ensure our customers get the highest quality broadband service for the best value,” the company said.  But it also added: “We’re continuing to evaluate usage-based pricing for our wireline broadband customers.”

“Bandwidth caps stifle consumer choice,” said Parul Desai, public policy counsel for Consumer’s Union.  Desai notes customers do not sign up for pricey high-speed FiOS broadband service from companies like Verizon just to read e-mail.  Customers who are willing to pay premium prices for super high speeds certainly don’t want a usage cap devaluing their broadband package.

Comcast, for example, uniformly limits consumption to 250GB per month, even on high speed plans delivering over 50Mbps service.

“It’s like building a rocket that you blow up after it reaches 250 feet into the air,” says Stop the Cap! reader Will in Tampa, who shared the article with us.  “What is the point of having 50 or 100Mbps service from any provider if they slap a limit on it like that.”

Will thinks customers will abandon higher speed packages in droves once they realize they really can’t use them.

“With some of these companies talking about caps around 40GB per month, you can’t even take your connection for a test drive,” he says.  “You might as well stick with basic speeds, just to remind and discourage you from putting yourself over their stupid limits.”

Desai suspects broadband companies will try limiting their customers, if only because they face few competitors consumers can use instead and they have video services to protect.  But she suspects some consumers will either abandon or seriously downgrade their broadband service and find other ways to trade large files and content.

“It’s not inevitable they’re going to succeed,” she told TBO. “People only find value in broadband because of what they can access with it. If more people feel constrained, they’ll start looking for another way.”

It’s 27 degrees outside, the oranges are turning into orangesicles, and now this.

AT&T reports an independent construction crew in Volusia County accidentally cut a fiber cable that has resulted in a major cell phone outage for residents across northern and central Florida.

“An AT&T wireless disruption is currently impacting some customers in parts of Jacksonville, Tallahassee, Daytona, Ocala, Gainesville, and Panama City,” says an AT&T spokesperson. “Some customers may have trouble connecting to voice calls and voicemail at this time.”

AT&T is trying to repair the cable to restore service.

Stop the Cap! reader Jasper in Wildwood, Fla., wonders how one fiber cut can take out AT&T’s cell phone network for half the state.

“This sure isn’t your father’s AT&T,” Jasper writes. “Hasn’t AT&T ever heard of redundant backup systems for just these occasions?”

Jasper noticed his AT&T cell phone service quit connecting calls earlier this evening.

“It’s either a fast busy signal or nothing at all,” Jasper reports.  “AT&T froze us out.”

Seymour and Sidell Reiner (Sun-Sentinel)

A Boynton Beach family’s tragic story may give Comcast phone customers second thoughts about whether the cable company’s “digital phone” service is a help or hindrance in an emergency.

Seymour Reiner arrived home last Thanksgiving to find his wife of 62 years dead on the floor from a cut ankle.  But his shock turned to anger when he learned his beloved wife Sidell’s death likely came after Comcast, the company that delivers his phone service, could not quickly manage to provide emergency officials with their home address.

Comcast customers in south Florida who dial “0” from their Comcast phone lines hear a message indicating they should press “0” if the call is a 911 emergency, which Sidell apparently did at least 10 times.

“Help me! Help me, please! Help me! Help me!” Sidell pleaded in disturbing recordings (warning: graphic content) obtained by the Sun Sentinel newspaper.

Sixteen minutes later, when paramedics finally arrived, it was too late.  An hour after that, Seymour arrived home to find the phone laying next to Sidell’s body.

The 81-year old Florida grandmother cut her ankle after dropping some crystal glassware, hitting an artery that caused major bleeding.  She reached for her phone and dialed “0” hoping to reach an operator, but was instead connected with Comcast’s call center.  The cable company eventually transferred the call to Palm Beach County’s 911 emergency services center, but by that time, her anguished pleas for help were barely audible.

The county’s 911 dispatcher asked Comcast’s operator for Reiner’s address, which she could not provide.  Minutes passed as Comcast tried to figure out the address where the call originated from, and an ambulance was eventually dispatched.  Emergency responders arriving at the Sidell’s home left after nobody answered their knocks on the home’s locked front door.  Sidell was unconscious by that time.

Now the Reiner family has filed a lawsuit against Comcast demanding unspecified damages for the cable company’s performance during the tragic events, and also has served notice they may sue the county and fire rescue service for their alleged negligence.

Reiner appeared visibly upset at a press conference held earlier today announcing the lawsuit.  He told several reporters he doesn’t want anyone else to suffer the tragedy he faced when his phone provider couldn’t quickly handle a call for help that ultimately resulted in his wife’s death.

Gary Cohen, the family’s attorney, was livid about Comcast.

“They have her address when it comes to a bill, but when it comes to saving her life, they can’t find her address?” Cohen asked.

The lawsuit led the news across several cities in south Florida, and viewers heard the story first-hand:

“Her phone number, when we put in her phone number, it is showing that there is no information available on that number,” the Comcast operator says.

“Oh, goodness,” the Boynton Beach operator responds.

Cohen accused Comcast of being indifferent about the urgency of Reiner’s desperate pleas for help and said the cable company dropped the ball.

“This was a life-deciding call and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of communication that this is a desperate situation,” Cohen said. “”Nobody took responsibility in saving her — no one went that extra mile and did what they needed to do.”

Cable company and other “Voice Over IP” phone services have been criticized in the past for not passing through important caller-ID information to emergency responders that includes up to date addresses of where the calls originate.  Some traditional phone companies have used past failures by alternative providers to warn consumers not to disconnect landline service because of possible delays in emergency response.  The Reiner family may prove to be a case in point.

Comcast spokeswoman Marta Casas-Celaya said her company does not comment about pending court cases and declined to answer general questions about services provided when a caller dials “0.”  Another statement indicated the company felt “deeply saddened for the Reiner family’s loss.”

[flv width=”640″ height=”500″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Boynton Beach Tragedy 10-27-10.flv[/flv]

Several Florida TV stations gave this story the lead on their evening newscasts. [WPBF-TV & WPTV-TV West Palm Beach, WFOR-TV Miami, WPEC-TV West Palm Beach]  (9 minutes)

South Florida Comcast customers signed up for the Blast! broadband plan are getting noticeably faster speeds from the cable company this week with a free speed upgrade.

Blast! in southeastern Florida used to deliver 16/1Mbps service, but customers in the region are now reporting speeds are up to 20/2Mbps.  PowerBoost, which delivers a temporary speed boost, has also been upgraded to provide improvements in both downstream and upstream speeds at rates as fast as 25/5Mbps.

Comcast will inform customers with outdated cable modems they’ll need to upgrade them to receive the newest available speeds.  All others only need power cycle their existing modem by briefly unplugging it to obtain the new speeds.