RALEIGH, N.L. - An extended internet outage in Raleigh over the weekend was more than an inconvenience for the village.
“It really impacted our business here in Raleigh,” said Ted Hedderson, owner of Burnt Cape Cabins. “It impacted our restaurant because we couldn’t take Interac payments; it also affected sales at our store.”
Hedderson could not put a dollar figure on losses, but noted it was “somewhat significant.”
He also fielded complaints from tourists, who couldn’t access websites particularly for booking tours, accommodations and making travel arrangements.
The interruption began sometime after midnight on Saturday, Aug. 11 and was not fixed until the evening on Monday, Aug. 13, according to Raleigh Mayor Cyril Taylor. It impacted residents and the town’s administration.
“Everyone’s dependent on the internet now,” he noted. “A lot of people do their financial business online.”
He himself had online banking to do that he had to wait until Tuesday to complete.
And the town couldn’t get or respond to emails or conduct other town business.
“It does have an impact, more than people would think,” Taylor said.
The mayor declined to speculate on whether Raleigh gets short-shrifted on support for internet services.
“I have no idea,” he said. “They said they were looking for the problem, but whether they were looking or not, I wouldn’t be able to tell you.”
Hedderson was less unequivocal.
“You know we do (get short-shrifted),” he said. “And not getting any straight answers from Bell Aliant was frustrating too.”
A spokesperson for the company said the problem was hardware-related and dealt with expeditiously.
“A damaged network component disrupted internet services for some customers in the Raleigh area over the weekend,” wrote Isabel Boulet in an email. “Service was restored as quickly as possible when new equipment was sourced and a technician arrived on site to complete the repairs.”
