Frances Update

MSOs were still evaluating the Hurricane Frances’ aftermath Tues. Adelphia said a generator failure at its West Palm Beach call center reduced a significant amount of call center capacity for the region. Calls are being routed to other Adelphia call centers, but customers "unfortunately, may receive a recording." A replacement generator was being installed yesterday afternoon, with the call center expected to be back online sometime today. The MSO said it would provide automatic credits to customers whose service has been interrupted. Most of Adelphia’s plant is intact and operational, but "due to unavoidable circumstances, Adelphia is experiencing some technical difficulties in certain head ends, hubs and nodes." It’s working to be fully operating within 60 hours. Comcast estimated that of its 840K FL customers, about 133K were impacted by the storm. The bulk of those subs were in Broward County or off the Treasure Coast-2 of the hardest hit areas. The power company said it could be 3-4 weeks before power is restored to parts of Treasure Coast, a Comcast rep said. There doesn’t appear to be any major damage to the MSO’s plant, but crews are on the ground handling a lot of downed drops. Time Warner said most of its subs in St Augustine and Palatka are experiencing power outages so it’s been unable to fully access damage. The headend is back up on a generator in Lake City and Live Oak, and it’s already located a number of down drops. Bright House Networks says significant power outages plague much of its service area. Employees have been able to check out the plant and things appear OK. The bottom line: "we weren’t hit nearly as bad as with Charley," a spokeswoman said.