A month after Laura ripped through the state many central Louisiana Suddenlink customers are still without internet, phone, and television service.
Pineville Representative Mike Johnson said Cleco restored power to the region within ten days of Laura’s arrival, but Suddenlink is dragging their feet.
“They’ve got a clear path in central Louisiana and despite that fact I still cannot get an estimated date of completion,” said Johnson.
Suddenlink CEO Dexter Goei reported that about 90 percent of customers had been restored but Johnson says the sheer volume of constituent calls and emails he gets puts that estimation into question.
Johnson said there are a lot of kids who can’t take their online classes, businesses who can’t operate, nursing home residents who are isolated, and clinics who can’t receive medical records.
“This just can’t continue and people can’t be taken advantage of like this,” said Johnson. “So, it is not hard to get up in the morning and get fired up about this issue because it is just not right.”
Suddenlink was purchased by French multinational telecommunications firm Altice in 2012. Johnson says since then CenLa customers have seen a drastic decline in the quality of their service, but unfortunately, Suddenlink is the only provider in the area.
Johnson said because of this incident and the company’s history of selling services they can’t provide they’re pushing the Attorney General to start using his power to intervene, along with another possibility.
“I’m very, very, very reluctant to want to put them under the Public Service Commission, but that is a consideration,” said Johnson.
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