artjohn
join:2000-11-17
Chevy Chase, MD
| Telephone Service Dies
We have lost all telephone service (no dial tone) during every recent power outage here in Chevy Chase, Md.
I thought RCN PROMISED to fix this problem after the Hurricane Isabel debacle in 2003 where some folks were w/o telephone service for a week.
What's up?
I can get no information from RCN support as to why this is happening or if any fix is in the works.
Help, please anyone? Or its back to Verizon for me (whose customers, btw, unless a wire is actually down, do not lose dialtone in a power outage). It's annoying to lose internet and tv, but no phone service is dangerous and means folks should avoid RCN telephone.
If it's a local issue and RCN is working on a fix, I would appreciate hearing what the problem is and when the fix will be effected. |
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ALapo
join:2001-06-11
Washington, DC | I do know that in 2003 they were placing generators on equipment in the field that had no power. |
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negativeduck
Premium,VIP
join:2002-02-14
Centreville, VA | if you can post your mac address (Assuming you have a modem) I can try and find out about the node your on. No guarantee's but I can see if I can find something.
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Bryan Laird
Senior Manager RCN Cablemodem Operations |
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artjohn
join:2000-11-17
Chevy Chase, MD | Thanks negativeduck for looking into this.
I do have a cable modem, and I believe that the mac address is 00-13-10-C5-77-01.
Again, thanks.
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negativeduck
Premium,VIP
join:2002-02-14
Centreville, VA | got it will look |
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negativeduck
Premium,VIP
join:2002-02-14
Centreville, VA
| well providing I got the right node from your mac address (should have) the plant guys from the local market are going to go take a look at it. They said the battery was low but that it should still be in operating normals. I didn't prod them for several more details but they did say they will get someone out there to take a look at it.
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Bryan Laird
Senior Manager RCN Cablemodem Operations |
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NW-DC
@rcn.com
| reply to artjohn
FWIW....
My experience after Isabel came through; we lost power and was out for 5 days. We have a generator and when it got fired up we found the cable and telephone still up. However, after about 48 hours into the power outage, the cable and telephone also die. I was working on the theory that the pole battery kept it up until the battery ran down.
During the microburst that came through last week the power stayed up, but we lost all RCN services (cable, internet and telephone) for about 1/2 - 3/4 hour. This past Saturday we had another all-services outage that lasted about 2 hours. Called RCN and they said we were part of a larger outage that they were already aware of and working on. Checked the RCN status page from my cellphone browser. No status page updates....that would have prevented me from calling. |
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artjohn
join:2000-11-17
Chevy Chase, MD
| NW-DC:
I'm not that far from you, and have had similar experiences.
During Hurricane Isabel in 2003 (and the week after it hit), we too lost Pepco power for five days; we have a portable gas generator, and it provides limited electricity to certain circuits in our home (basically emergency lighting, heat in the winter, and freezer/fridges); but RCN phone and internet was down for the entire five days.
On July 4th just past, we lost all electricity and all RCN services (phone, internet and tv) for 3 1/2 hours in the early evening and again for 20 minutes around midnight.
Then, on the morning of July 5, we lost all RCN services, even though we had full power from Pepco.
I'm hoping the RCN will make an effort to keep the phone service on even during weather emergencies. I certainly can understand if lines are cut or down, but unfortunately loosing power around here is rather a frequent occurrence. I would hope (and I don't think it unreasonable to expect) that RCN will keep phone service working during "routine" power outages. |
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negativeduck
Premium,VIP
join:2002-02-14
Centreville, VA
| reply to artjohn
One thing that you do need to consider is your relationship to the node. Say you have power but the next block over doesn't. If that block is without power and happens to be the physical location of the node that could cause services to go down eventually if there is no power there. Alternatively you might find that your house has lost power but services are still working, this could be because where the node is located still has power. Also remember, especially during storms and what not your house might loose power along with several others, while several locations have buried cable it's still entirely plausible that your loss of power is the result of a downed line somewhere else that also took down our wires hence no phone.
You are correct a status post should have been made and the NOC generally does a good job at keeping that up to date. But things can happen, and something gets missed from time to time. Our NOC is running 24x7x365 and when bad weather hits they are often tracking and working outages related to the storm all across the eastern seaboard. It's amazing sometimes how we can track a storm-front moving from VA to DC to MD without ever watching the radar.
Back to the original question I have not yet heard back about your node from our plant department
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Bryan Laird
Senior Manager RCN Cablemodem Operations |
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NW-DC
@myvzw.com | (Sent via Quick2Net) FWIW....about to go into the 4th hour of a complete service outage. RCN on phone says they're working on it. RCN Status Page again has no info or notice of any outage for any service. |
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sycocowz
join:2002-06-13
Ottsville, PA
 ·RCN CABLE
4 edits | reply to artjohn
I'm in Chevy Chase also, probably no more than 1 mile from you. I've had that exact same problem every power outage since we got RCN service a few years ago.
This last time I called, they sent a tech, and he said there was nothing they could do to fix it, the local node required power to function. (As far as I can tell there is no battery to speak of, the services go down immediatetly.) The tech seemed to imply that it was either impossible or not at all a priority to change this. All this while all our Verizon neighbors can use a phone like normal.
Bryan, if you want to check, I'm probably on the same node as ArtJohn: 00 00 39 8F CA 52
They have never been able to restore phone service before the power comes back on. And usually the soonest they can roll a truck is like 5 days later when everything is back to normal.
If this keeps up, as soon as FIOS comes we're dropping everything from RCN except the TV. |
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artjohn
join:2000-11-17
Chevy Chase, MD
| Hi Bryan!
I hope you haven't forgotten about us.
Sycocowz apparently is suffering from the same problem I do (loss of telephone service during routine power outages) , and like him, I too am not getting any satisfactory answers from RCN.
The current arragnement and service is not acceptable. |
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NW-DC
@rcn.com
| I'm on the DC side and my experiences of late have been the same. We've had more outages in the past few months that I've ever experienced since we got Starpower/RCN. Artjohn & I are far enough apart so I don't think the same battery would be sustaining both our drops. However that's a sign those pole batteries and chargers are not getting maintenance. Don't those chargers report a summary fault of some sort?
I maintain a Verizon hard-copper line on the cheapest, no frills pay-by-the-call service. Extra money but I sleep better. That line flies for only about 100 feet in an alley before it drops underground to the pedestal. It gets it's battery from the CO. IE; it is much less likely to go down in a storm and AFAIK has yet to do so.
NOT at all knocking RCN. RCN Rocks! Infrastructure maintenance is like playing whack-a-mole. BUT on this issue I believe RCN needs to take a few proactive actions and not just react to problems. |
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artjohn
join:2000-11-17
Chevy Chase, MD
| Hey Bryan!
Thank you for past help on this issue.
However, by your lack of further response, coupled with my failure to get any appropriate response from RCN tech support, am I to understand that RCN has no interest and will not fix the issue of failing telephone service during routine/short duration power outages in this area? |
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negativeduck
Premium,VIP
join:2002-02-14
Centreville, VA
| Actually it's a matter of not always have time to poke in here and see what's going on. We do try but sometimes things can lag a bit.
Anyway, the plant guys came back to me on Friday and informed me it should all be ok now.
"The major problem was faulty wiring from the batteries to the power supply unit. All equipment has been replaced and the Power Supply unit kicks into standby as designed"
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Bryan Laird
Senior Manager RCN Cablemodem Operations |
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artjohn
join:2000-11-17
Chevy Chase, MD | Thanks Bryan, that is good news indeed.
I hope we never get to test it, but if we do, I hope it works!
Again, thanks. |
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sycocowz
join:2002-06-13
Ottsville, PA
2 edits | reply to artjohn
It's fixed. Just had a power outage and the phone worked. Thanks a lot Bryan for following through for us. |
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