Crown Heights Remains Offline

By COLlive reporter

Crown Heights residents have been virtually disconnected today (Monday), desperately searching for alternative methods of connection to the world wide web.

Subscribers of Cablevision and its brand Optimum Online remain unplugged for the past few hours. They didn’t receive any indication when the service will resume.

“I’m offline since this afternoon,” a local bochur told COLlive. “My friends and I tried calling the company, but we didn’t get any answer.”

Cablevision is the 5th largest cable provider in the USA, with most customers residing in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. They offer high-speed Internet connections, digital cable and VoIP phone service.

A Cablevision employee identified as Ryan confirmed to COLlive: “We are having some issues in Brooklyn. We have service outages and we are working on it.”

Asked when it is expected to end, Ryan said: “I can’t say… All I have is that ‘they are working on it.’ If your service is not restored by this evening, give us a call.”

While others seemed to survive – working out of the neighborhood or using their Blackberry – the internet blackout has placed the Shluchim Office’s Online School in jeopardy.

Operating for Chabad Shluchim’s children, a teacher sitting in the Crown Heights offices leads the class through an online conference program with students connecting from their hometowns.

Students were released for an extended recess in their homes for some two hours until the Shluchim Office obtained access to a T1 internet connection.