Verizon Makes Progress Restoring Telecommunications Services on Manhattan's East Side

NEW YORK -- Verizon is continuing its around-the-clock efforts to completely restore telecommunications service to a portion of the east side of Manhattan.

Company technicians restored six of the eight fiber optic cables damaged on East 58^th Street and expect to have the two remaining fiber cables restored later today. The fiber facilities handle primarily data circuits to nearby office buildings, but also carry some standard voice traffic. As a result of the fiber restoration, some 4,800 telephone circuits have been restored and approximately 400 T-1 circuits.

A construction crew working for another company knocked out telecommunications service for as many as 15,000 lines late in the day Tuesday (April 30). The non-Verizon crew was digging on 58^th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues and cut 17 Verizon cables.

Verizon has approximately 200 employees on the scene and at central offices and test bureaus working to restore service. The affected area is roughly from 57^th to 63^rd Streets, from Third to Madison Avenues. Not all Verizon customers in this area are without service; the company has many other cables in the area that route telephone calls and data services.

"This is a very labor-intensive restoration process," said Joseph DeMauro, president of Verizon's Liberty Region, which includes Manhattan. "The fiber part of the job will restore a lot of capacity, but before most service is restored, we must remove the damaged copper cables to make room for the new facilities. Only when the new copper cables are in place can we begin splicing the thousands of lines contained in each cable. We must splice the connections at both ends of the new section and then test each line."

He added that full restoration will take until the weekend, but said that as the repair process continues, more customers will begin to see their service restored.

DeMauro noted that Verizon has been working closely with New York City officials to keep the public and customers informed of the damage and the repair estimates. The city's 911 network was not affected, however, those customers without dial tone cannot make calls.

Verizon has positioned three trailers of public phones that customers may use at no charge. The trailers are located at 58^th Street and Madison Avenue, Park Avenue between 62^nd and 63^{rd/sup> Streets, and on 65th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues.}

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) is one of the world's leading providers of communications services. Verizon companies are the largest providers of wireline and wireless communications in the United States, with 133.8 million access line equivalents and approximately 29.6 million wireless customers. Verizon is also the largest directory publisher in the world. With more than $67 billion in annual revenues and nearly 248,000 employees, Verizon's global presence extends to more than 40 countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Pacific. For more information on Verizon, visit www.verizon.com.

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