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NorthStar Assists BellSouth in Storm Relief Effort
For Immediate Release. November 20, 2002, Birmingham, Alabama: NorthStar Communications Group (NorthStar) crews recently assisted BellSouth in the restoration of telephone service to thousands of BellSouth customers. NorthStar's effort were focused largely in Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles and Alexandria, Louisiana where Hurricane Lili left much of the area without telephone service.
At BellSouth's request, NorthStar sent crews to survey the geography of the affected areas, report cable and equipment damage, and assist in restoration efforts. NorthStar's surveys determined that 404 BellSouth pole lines and 519,350 feet of associated aerial cable were damaged in the area due to heavy winds and fallen trees. In addition, BellSouth cable and equipment sustained damage from water intrusion, a result of heavy rains. NorthStar deployed more than fifty employees from offices in Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Shreveport, Monroe and Alexandria, Louisiana to perform the engineering restoration services for more than 700 BellSouth service locations.
"NorthStar has drawn on its extensive experience in this area to develop various restoration models in order to be ready for any emergency assistance situation," said Matt McCool, Vice President of NorthStar's BellSouth Alliance. "Through a clearly defined set of best practices, NorthStar's District and Area Managers were able to quickly assess the needs, logistics, and deployment strategies required to restore critical services to BellSouth."
NorthStar was selected by BellSouth in 1997 as one of four Outsourcing Partners for OSP engineering in a nine-state area. BellSouth recently renewed its agreement with NorthStar, the sole remaining outside plant (OSP) outsourcing partner, for five more years.
NorthStar, with corporate headquarters in Birmingham, Alabama, serves as the stand-alone telecommunications subsidiary of BE&K, Inc. NorthStar offers a full suite of wireline and wireless infrastructure services as well as network operations and maintenance solutions. For more information regarding NorthStar's service offerings, refer to our website at www.NorthStar.net.
For more information contact:
Emily Holcombe
NorthStar Communications Group, Inc.
E-mail: HolcombeE@NorthStar.net
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Copyright 2002 NSCG
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