News : Mediacom reports fiber cuts, service down but iVinton passes "stress test"

At Tuesday evening's VMCU (Vinton Municipal Communications Utilities) meeting, Dave Fridley of Farr Technologies gave an update on the condition of the iVinton project. During the building of iVinton the design of iVinton was created for situations like we experienced this week. The network is connected to two major veins of communication out of Vinton. Just in case we had a week like this. Fridley said that there was a "nanosecond" of time when the project flickered off to switch to the backup internet route. The design passed its first stress test he said.

At this time, approximately 1/3 of those requesting the iVinton service have been connected. Storm damage not only here but across the state has delayed the progress of the teams connecting new customers. Progress has been slow, but the wait will be worth it. Teams are planning to resume connecting new customers next week. If you've already signed up for iVinton and have yet to be connected, please be patient, the staff at the iVinton office are as anxious as everyone else to see the project completed and can't wait to get everyone connected. There are other delays happening for the project including the necessary paperwork for sections of the town. However, progress while at a slower pace than we'd like to see is still progress.

In the meantime, Mediacom reported that as of Wednesday morning, approximately 340,000 of its customers were still without service. In a statement, the company said, "Our crews have begun the process of restoring service as quickly and safely as possible. Please keep in mind that downed trees and powerlines may delay repairs in certain areas. In many cases, we must wait for the power company to repair damaged electrical lines before we will be permitted to make repairs to our network.

In addition to numerous commercial power issues we are experiencing in the Midwest, we have identified three major cuts to our fiber network in the Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and Vinton, Iowa areas. These fiber cuts are impacting additional communities as they are part of our middle-mile fiber network. As fallen trees are cleared and damaged utility poles are replaced, we are moving our crews in to repair these fiber cuts and restore connectivity as quickly and safely as possible."