WASHINGTON COUNTY, Tenn. (WJHL) - Some Brightspeed customers across the Tri-Cities region are still without internet or phone service two months after Hurricane Helene knocked down cell phone lines.
Mark Keplinger and his parents are Brightspeed customers. While his phone and internet have been restored, his parents have not been able to make a phone call since the hurricane.
"I just would really like them to try to get it fixed as soon as possible," said Keplinger. "It would make our life a lot easier, and we could breathe a lot easier, and she wouldn't have to try to wander off down the road."
Keplinger said his parents only have a landline phone through Brightspeed, which is a concern for him because his parents are elderly and his father has dementia. Without phone service, they cannot call 911 in case of an emergency.
"She's got one of them alerts where if she falls, she can push it to alert people," said Keplinger. "Then people try to call here, but they can't call here to see if she's okay because she doesn't have a phone."
News Channel 11 reached out to Brightspeed regarding the issue. The company said it plans to come out and fix the Keplingers' phone Saturday. In another statement, the company offered an explanation as to why restoration has taken so long for some customers.
"While we cannot say specifically how many of this area's outages occurred as a result of Helene, we can share that we saw a dramatic increase in service calls after the storm. While that number has declined, our trouble tickets remain above the historical average."
Doris Durey, another Brightspeed customer who spoke to News Channel 11 on Tuesday, said she had been without internet since Helene. However, on Friday, she said her service was by the company.
"They fixed it, and it's working," said Durey. "I was so happy because I really didn't know when to expect internet to come back."
In another statement from Brightspeed, the company said it is working to get all customers' internet and phones back online.
"Brightspeed remains committed to responding to all of our customers and bringing them back online as quickly as we can, even as we manage heightened calls for service with added urgency after the disaster."