I think it's not enough repair staff. Phone service in our neighborhood was out for nearly three days back in November, with no major storm and no explanation; if we hadn't had cell phones, we wouldn't have had any idea they were even working on it. We've never had anything like that. Immediately afterwards, we had horrible noise on the line until they could get someone out a week later. He never had to come to the house; he worked on the same junction and told us that the person who'd done the repair had basically screwed it up.
(no subject)