Dateline: January 17, 2002

Valor customers cut off from long distance    

Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

Local phone customers were disconnected from making out of town calls for nearly eight hours last Wednesday after a farmer near Panhandle cut a fiber optic cable.

The disruption affected more than 10,000 Valor Telecom customers in Clarendon, Hedley, Panhandle, Lakeview, Memphis, Groom, Claude, Wellington, and Estelline.

Valor crews began repairing the cable at 3:30 p.m. and had service restored by 11 p.m.

Last October, more than 8,000 Valor customers were disconnected for more than three hours when a crew with the City of Panhandle also cut a fiber optic cable.