A power outage in Manchester, N.H., that knocked out FairPoint Communications’ network operating center caused technical problems for the company and some customers in Maine and Vermont on Monday.
An undetermined number of customers in Maine and Vermont lost their Internet service and their FairPoint telephone voice mail answering services, said Jeff Nevins, a spokesman for FairPoint. Those services were expected to be restored by this morning.
“It was a very localized outage that happened to be where our network operation center is located,” Nevins said.
Elizabeth LaRocca, spokeswoman for Public Service of New Hampshire, said a section of downtown Manchester lost power around 1:20 p.m. after an underground cable malfunctioned.
LaRocca said the outage was confined to a few streets in Manchester that included FairPoint’s network operating center at 770 Elm St. Power was restored at 2:40 p.m.
When power came back on, it created a surge that FairPoint said blew out a power panel before the system could be switched to a backup generator.
Nevins said the surge knocked out FairPoint’s internal communications system — telephones, email and Internet services — in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.
The problem cascaded into external communication lines.
Staff Writer Dennis Hoey can be contacted at 791-6365 or at: dhoey@pressherald.com
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