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Directing Truck Rolls for Storm Outages

Posted on June 30, 2010

Profile: Limestone Cable

Limestone Cablevision has been serving residents and businesses in the Ohio Valley and Maysville areas of Kentucky since 1959. Learn more about Limestone’s cable television, advertising and broadband services at maysvilleky.net.

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“We had a storm outage the other day and we were able to pinpoint where an amp was down before our crew ever left the building. A great money and time saver.”
Jeff Cracraft
Vice President
Limestone Cablevision

Problem: Long and Expensive Truck Rolls

A thunderstorm knocked out broadband service to several customers and Jeff Cracraft, Vice President at Limestone Cable, needs to locate the source of the outage and restore service. Generally when severe weather rolls in, Jeff and his staff dispatch multiple trucks to troubleshoot in the field and restore service on a case-by-case basis. Dispatching trucks and technicians is costly and time-consuming, so Jeff needed tools to help Limestone locate outages remotely and dispatch trucks more efficiently.

Solution: Mapping by Port Directs Truck Rolls More Precisely

Jeff and the Limestone team turned to TruVizion’s network diagnostics tools to locate the problem. With a quick glance at the CMTS screen, Jeff and his team could clearly see which port was affected and then map the modems on that port to quickly identify where to dispatch a truck to investigate the trouble.

Before they started using TruVizion, it would have taken much longer to isolate the area where service was affected. Limestone would have made multiple truck rolls along the line, until the problem was located. With information from TruVizion to point the way, Limestone sent a single truck to a specific location and when the technicians arrived on the scene, they discovered that an amp that had been hit by lightning.

Instead of guessing at the location and nature of the problem, TruVizion helped Jeff save Limestone time and money by efficiently targeting the trouble with fewer resources. And, the damaged amp could be replaced quickly, getting the affected customers back online right away, reducing customer complaints and increasing their satisfaction with Limestone’s service.