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BY MATTHEW STONE
Staff Writer 05/07/2008

Staff Writer

Local law enforcement agencies and emergency responders reported few interruptions to the services they provide despite a Unicel network outage that silenced 248,000 customers' cell phones Tuesday.

While the network outage forced emergency responders at Skowhegan's Redington-Fairview Hospital to change how they communicate Tuesday, they still managed to transmit the necessary messages.

"I don't think there's been any kind of effect in a way that was detrimental to anybody," hospital emergency medical services director Barbara Demchak said.

Each of the hospital's ambulances carries Unicel phones on board. Emergency responders prefer to use the cell phones to communicate patient information privately, rather than broadcasting it over a radio, Demchak said.

Tuesday, Redington-Fairview staff resorted to two-way radios.

"It wasn't like it incapacitated our ability to communicate," Demchak said. "We just had to revert to another means of communication."

Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Steve McCausland said all Maine State Police troopers are issued cell phones and some, particularly in the Bangor area, use Unicel service. But the vast majority of troopers use other companies.

"The disruption has been minimal, if any at all," McCausland said. "The troopers, obviously, still have their state police radios to communicate with their dispatchers."

Kennebec County Emergency Management Agency director Kelly Amoroso said agency staff members rely on U.S. Cellular for cell phone services and thus escaped the outage's impact.

Augusta police Sgt. Mark Desjardins said police services were not affected by the Unicel outage.

"We always have our radios," he said.

Officials at emergency dispatch centers in Franklin, Kennebec and Somerset Counties reported no service disruptions Tuesday related to the Unicel outage.

MaineGeneral Medical Center spokeswoman Diane Peterson said the outage had little impact on communications there. Staff members use pagers more often than cell phones, she said.

Sara Dyer, a spokeswoman at Waterville's Inland Hospital, said hospital staff members use U.S. Cellular for cell phone services.

Staff writers Doug Harlow and Gary Remal contributed to this report.

Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, Ext. 435

mstone@centralmaine.com

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