Sporadic Outages Hit Phone Service Throughout Michigan

Phone service throughout Michigan, including in Farmington and Farmington Hills, experienced sporadic interruptions Wednesday morning and the service provider was working to make repairs.

The disruptions began at approximately 9 a.m. and technicians were working to correct the problems, said David Avery, a spokesman for Little Rock, Ark.-based Windstream.

Avery said the disruptions appeared to be caused by a cut fiber optic cable in Indiana and an equipment malfunction in Wisconsin. He could not provide an estimated time for service restoration. Avery said Windstream also was working to determine the exact scope of the problem in Michigan.

Windstream provides "high-speed broadband Internet, phone service and Digital TV packages to residential customers as well as products and services for small, medium and large businesses, and government agencies," according to its website.

Farmington Public Schools announced in a Wednesday morning list serv message that phone lines are down throughout the district. The City of Farmington Hills was also affected, but phone lines were back up just before 2 p.m.

Oakland County government lines were impacted, according to a press release, and callers with critical needs were advised to dial the county’s switchboard at 1-888-350-0900 and ask to be transferred to the appropriate department or division.

"Callers whose issues are not urgent are asked to call back after regular service has been restored," the press release said. "At this time, it is not clear when that will be. Incoming and outgoing long distance calls are not affected because they are handled by another service provider."

The outage also impacted lines in Flint, Bay City, Lapeer, Saginaw Township, Wyoming and Ann Arbor, according to WNEM television channel 5 in Flint.

Local editor Joni Hubred-Golden contributed to this report. Stay tuned to Farmington-Farmington Hills Patch for updates!