Update: ACS has announced that all wireless services are back up and running as of 10:50 a.m. Monday.
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An Alaska Communications wireless outage is affecting customers on the Kenai Peninsula South of Cooper Landing — though Seward’s connection is uninterrupted.
Citing an equipment failure as the cause of the interruption, Heather Cavanaugh, director of corporate communications, said the breakdown was with equipment that was not owned by the company
“We’re looking into the root cause of it,” Cavanaugh said. “It was shared equipment, not ACS equipment.”
She said the company had made the outage its top priority for fixing, however did not give a timeline for when service would be fully restored.
A sign taped to the front door at the Kenai retail storefront informs customers of the outage.
The outage happened at 5:30 a.m., an update is expected at 10 a.m. and the company is hoping to have service restored by noon, according to the sign.
Cavanaugh said the service interruption should be on the ACS 3G network meaning that cellular voice and data services are not available, she could not confirm whether internet services were available. Cavanaugh said the company was looking into reports of home internet being unavailable for a few customers.
Deborah Beaudry, a Kenai retail store employee, said a lot of people had stopped by the Kenai and Soldotna stores to find out why their phones were not working.
Dwight Davis, one of a handful of customers who stopped by the store Monday morning, said he could not make phone calls or send text messages, but could receive them.
Davis, who owns Davis & Sons Pit Barbecue said the lack of cell phone service is an inconvenience.
“This is my business phone,” he said.