Is anyone out there (besides me) upset about not having any phone service yesterday, July 2nd?

If you’ve lived here long enough you won’t miss the experience of being without Century Tel and having internet. It’s like a power outage—almost always happens when you are awake.

Remember last year? The broken underwater cable? That event gave “disrupted” new meaning. Not that it happened because cables break, but it took so long for the repairs.

But back to the present. Today, I only needed to check in with my Mother—not an emergency.

“We’re sorry, all circuits are busy now – please try your call again later.”

I drove into town to get reception for my AT&T cell phone. No service. How could that be? What does AT&T have to do with Century Tel?

With plans A & B having failed, I drove to a friend’s home who has Verizon. Again, no service. This was getting wonky and a little scary.

How could it be that they are all down? (A rhetorical question). My mind tends to get over-active when there isn’t a logical explanation.

Rumor from neighbor to neighbor—a cable was broken on Carter Street. A cable? What, are you kidding me? The big three all share one cable? Or the same trench?

Imagine this conversation: “Please help me. I need an ambulance and Medivac to the mainland to save my life.”

The reply: “We’re sorry, all circuits are busy now. (Please) try your call again later.”

Fade to black.

Wednesday was a wake-up-call for islanders—with three phone companies serving us and still to be completely cut off from communication with the outside world. We don’t deserve what could happen in a medical emergency. If we don’t demand change and get it, shame on us.

Please take the time to notify your phone carrier(s) that what happened July 2nd is not acceptable. One service down shouldn’t take out the other two.

Separate phone carriers should be just that. For our protection—it’s a no-brainer.

Claudia La Cava/San Juan Island

— Editor’s note: Formerly known as Century Tel, CenturyLink is the third largest telecommunications company in the U.S., and the primary provider of traditional telephone service (the so-called “land-line”) in the San Juan Islands.