Equipment failure causes telecom outage in Northern Valley

The failure of a piece of equipment owned by Matanuska Telephone Association was responsible for the hours-long telecommunication outage in the Northern Valley on Tuesday.

Jackie Kenshalo, Senior Manager for Community and Public Affairs for MTA, says equipment in a communication hut operated by the co-op failed, but took some time to track down, since the hut’s location did not correspond to the outage area. She says traffic patterns were used to ultimately track down the source of the problem. The faulty equipment was replaced, and phones and internet connections started working again.

The outage affected DSL internet, wireless service for multiple providers, and some area landlines. The outage was resolved by around 9:00 pm on Tuesday.