News and Omissions

News and Omissions was Originally Posted on July 27, 2010 by

So I am on the internet last night and exactly at midnight, my internet service stops. That also means no TV and no phone (I only have VOIP service).

At 12:30am I go to bed but notice the service is still out in the morning. I use my cell phone to call a friend who tells me he also has no cable. Seems Oceanic (Time Warner / Roadrunner) Cable company relies upon an underwater fiber optic cable, which broke overnight.

We only have the one major cable company, so some of Oahu and most of the eastern islands have no cable and limited telephone service.

At about 11am today my internet came up, however, it appears the cable is still down.

One of the first things I did was to go to the local news sites to see what the problem is, since I hear 50,000 people *may* be effected.

Here is their current status page. read this carefully:

Last Modified: Tuesday July 27th, 2010 at 1:27PM

Oahu
All services are working properly.

Hilo
Interruption of all services island wide.

Kona
Interruption of all services island wide.

Maui
Interruption of all services island wide.

Molokai/Lanai
Interruption of all services island wide.

Kauai
All services are working properly.

UnPlanned Service Outages and Upgrades

None at this time.

So you note that they don’t mention what the problem is, just that most islands are effected.

The online news states:

An Oceanic Time Warner Cable Internet service outage hit the entire state temporarily on Tuesday morning.

Viewers from the Big Island and Maui reported problems receiving television cable reception and/or phone calls on Tuesday morning. Oceanic Time Warner Cable said it had a problem with its fiber optic cable. They said some services were restored to those areas.

Even their competition, Hawaiian telecom, offered useage of their fiber optic cable to get them up and running. This is a perfect example of why STATUS pages of your utilities may not be your best choice for what is really happening.

Speaking of breaking news, Lance (James at 15) Kerwin, the teen TV star of decades ago, has a Hawaii connection. He was just found guilty of fraud on Kauai. He applied for food stamps and assistance but “forgot” to mention that he owns 3 properties on the mainland (which would make him ineligable I guess). In any event, yet another case of omission.