Full restoration months away
Published 9:30 pm Friday, September 25, 2020
CEO: Suddenlink expects to be fully operational by mid-November
A full restoration of internet service for Suddenlink Communications customers impacted by Hurricane Laura won’t happen until mid-November, Dexter Goei, CEO of Altice USA, said Thursday during a visit to Lake Charles. Roughly half of the Suddenlink customers in Lake Charles, or just over 20,000 households, should have service restored within the next two weeks, he said.
Goei’s first trip to the area since the storm’s Aug. 27 landfall came after local and state elected officials strongly criticized Suddenlink and Altice for their slow response in restoring internet service and a lack of communication with customers. So far, only 19 percent of the 43,000 households in the greater Lake Charles area have had their service restored, he said.
“From my standpoint, obviously, it’s unacceptable,” Goei said. “But it’s not a function of my desires or our efforts.”
Rebuilding the entire network in Lake Charles from scratch is estimated to cost more than $60 million, Goei said. Excluding the Lake Charles area, service was up and running in 80 percent of the 150,000 households that use Suddenlink throughout Louisiana, one week after Laura hit, Goei said. That increased to 90 percent by mid-September.
“What’s clear here is that we’re dealing with a little bit of a different animal in terms of the utter destruction and devastation to the community, but also to our network,” he said. “The destruction level we encountered in the Lake Charles area was unexpected.”
Restoring internet service depends on Suddenlink’s ability to rebuild the damaged network through its partnership with Entergy, Goei said. He said Entergy has to inform Suddenlink of “safe zones” where crews can work.
“Entergy has to go out and rebuild its network in a safe fashion in order for them to give us a green light to go out there and lay our cables,” he said. “Just throwing people here days or even a week after Laura hit would’ve done no good. People would not have been able to work on rebuilding the network without having the utility network up and running.”
Goei said crews have already addressed restoring service at most of the local health care facilities. He said nine of the 11 critical school facilities in the area should have restored service by Monday, Sept. 28.
Suddenlink customers in Lake Charles, DeRidder, Leesville, Pineville and Alexandria will be proactively credited for one month’s worth of service on their next billing cycle, Goei said. Subsequent months without service will also be proactively credited. Communities outside those areas will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
Suddenlink will replace equipment that was either lost or damaged by the hurricane, Goei said.
Goei apologized for not attending a Joint Commerce Committee in Baton Rouge last week. He said he understood the Lake Charles visit may be “too little too late” for some customers and officials.
“Today was a day where we could actually answer with a 95 percent confidence every single question that’s been asked of us and give real guidelines,” he said. “A week ago, that wasn’t possible.”
Goei said just under 1,000 workers are in the Lake Charles area right now to help with restoring service.
The Suddenlink customer center in Lake Charles will reopen next week, he said.
Goei said Suddenlink customers will be notified when their service is restored. He said Altice and Suddenlink plan to improve customer service. He attributed issues where call center representatives were unaware of Hurricane Laura’s landfall to a “training issue” in an area that has regular employee turnover.
“There are always going to be those exceptions out there that are very unfortunate,” Goei said.
Goei asked residents to leave alone any cables that are hanging or on the ground so they can get attached to permanent infrastructure.
Goei also addressed local criticism at his Sept. 2 appearance on CNBC, where he discussed an unsolicited offer by Altice USA to acquire Cogeco, a Canadian telecommunications and media company. The offer was rejected.
He said Altice and Suddenlink were focused on planning to restore service before Hurricane Laura hit.
