Mediacom Communications reports that its broadband and cable television services have been restored to approximately 57-percent of the Georgia customers who whose telecommunication services were impacted by Tropical Storm Irma.
 
Mediacom delivers broadband services throughout a 30-county area of southwest Georgia, and since the storm made its worst impact on Monday, services have been restored to 57-percent of customers using Mediacom for residential or business internet service. On Monday, Mediacom reported that 17,600 had temporarily lost services, and as of early morning Wednesday, Sept. 1, that number was reduced to 7,577.
 
“Our Georgia customers have been the focus of our attention, with more than 1,000 Mediacom employees working to bring services back up as quickly as possible,” said Doug Frank, group vice president for Mediacom operations. “We know how essential it is to stay connected, and we want to help customers return to their normal daily routines.”
 
Mediacom’s fiber-based telecommunications network passes 275,000 Georgia homes in 52 communities. The area with the highest percentage of customers experiencing storm-related service disruptions is in Valdosta and surrounding communities. Within Valdosta, Mediacom created a community Wi-Fi network earlier in the year,connecting a series of 76 WiFi access points. Under normal circumstances, customers have unlimited access to connect to those mobile spots around the community, but Mediacom has opened those WiFi hotspots for any and all people during a storm recovery period. 
 
With a high volume of fallen trees and debris, cable lines are down on the ground in many neighborhoods, and Mediacom crews will work in a systematic way to re-hang those lines. Any person who sees a downed cable line on the ground is urged to not touch it, due to the fact that it is not easy to distinguish between a live power line and a non-electric cable.
 
If customers or other residents see dropped cable lines, Mediacom asks them to call the company’s toll-free customer service number to report the location. The number to call is: 1-855-633-4226.
 
All Mediacom offices have remained open and fully operational this week, with the exception of the Thomasville office which was briefly closed to the public due to unavailability of commercial power.