Updates on Ruidoso, N.M. service outages

November 8

We are delighted to report we’ve made tremendous progress on our service restorations. All network areas where we were able to repair the infrastructure are back up and available to customers.

Here is the latest restoration map:

If your address is in a green-shaded area on the map and your services are not yet working, please give our repair team a call (877-422-5282). They can troubleshoot and open a service ticket if needed so we can resolve the issue.

The areas in red on the map reflect network sections fully destroyed by the fires. We will be rebuilding our network in these locations from the ground up with the latest technology. We are upgrading to fiber-optic connections which means you’ll get faster speeds. In addition, we will be burying much of this new infrastructure, making it more resilient. We are coordinating with other utilities and community partners on build plans, and will proceed with construction as soon as we can.

While this will be the final update for now, we will post additional information as construction moves forward next year

Thank you again for your patience. We know the last few months have been challenging and we’re grateful to have you as a TDS customer.

 

September 18

Great news! The Bellavia Circle Dr., Canyon Rd., Meadow Wood, Sam St., and University Drive area is nearly 100% restored. If your service isn’t working, please do call in (877-422-5282) to speak to our repair team so they can troubleshoot and schedule a technician visit if needed. Please be aware that a few homes on Sundance Dr. and Bellavia Circle Dr. will remain without service until mid-next week (weather permitting) due to damage found in an underground cable. Repair work is already underway.

Here is the current network restoration status map:

 

We’re also making great progress in the greater Alto Lakes area (image below) and expect the first customers to be reconnected on September 27. The restoration will happen gradually as we complete splicing and network balancing work. Our current expectation is that all of this greater Alto Lakes area will be restored by October 1 (again, weather pending and contingent on not discovering any additional unexpected damage).

 

The next addresses we expect to come back online are located the Deer Creek Rd. area of the network section pictured below. When we have date estimates to share, we will certainly do so.

Sept 13

Our contractors will be working this weekend in the Bellavia Circle Dr., Canyon Rd., Meadow Wood, Sam St., and University Drive area with the goal of finishing the restoration by the end of next week. This date depends on weather and our teams not facing any additional unanticipated replacement work. Fires of this scale often lead to unexpected, non-obvious damage that is only identified as each cable span is worked on and parts are tested and inspected.

There are no major updates regarding the greater Alto Lakes area. We have made progress on the tear-out work but do not yet have an estimated restoration date.

September 6

We’ve updated our maps to reflect the current restoration status.

In the Bellavia Circle Dr., Canyon Rd., Meadow Wood, Sam St., University Drive area we are now approximately 75% restored, but the remaining addresses will not be turned back up by today as we expected. We discovered more damaged cable than our initial surveys originally indicated, requiring additional tear-out and replacement. When we are highly confident about a new estimated date, we will share it here.

In the greater Alto Lakes area mentioned in our last update, we have made progress on the tear-out work but do not yet have an estimated restoration date.

Reminder: We are still issuing bill credits for your time without service related to this disaster. If you have any questions or concerns, please call us at 877-422-5282 so we can help.

 

August 28

Restoration continues to progress in the Bellavia Circle Dr., Canyon Rd., Meadow Wood, Sam St., University Drive area. Last week approximately half of the addresses—those on the eastern side—were reconnected to services (including Meadowood, Convair Drive, Sunny Slope Drive, Sunny Slope Court, Valley View Drive, Milagro Hills Court, and a group of addresses on College Drive). Additional addresses have been connected over the last 24 hours and we are currently expecting the remainder of this network section to be up and running by the end of next week.

Our crews are also working in the network section that includes the following streets (image below):

• Adelweiss
• Billy the Kid Trail (portion)
• Brentwood. Dr
• Broadmoor Dr. (107-240)
• Crown Ridge Rd. (101-264)
• Edelweiss Loop
• Fort Stanton Rd.
• Grapevine Ct.
• Greenbrier Dt.
• High Mesa Road (303-420)
• Lake Shore Dr.
• Mountain Oak Ct.
• Pine Cone Ln. (101-129—odd side, plus 102-108)
• Pinehurst Rd.
• Ski Run Rd.
• St. Andrews Ct.
• Sunset Dr.
• Tanglewood Ln.

We’re finishing up the placement of new cable across this greater Alto Lakes area (picture below) and, once this work is complete, we can begin splicing. An estimated restoration date will begin to come into focus as those efforts progress.

August 20

We expect the following areas to be up by lunch tomorrow: Meadowood, Convair Drive, Sunny Slope Drive, Sunny Slope Court, Valley View Drive, Milagro Hills Court, and a group of addresses on College Drive. As we said last week, we anticipate this section of the network will restore in two phases—the eastern half of the area will restore prior to the western half. Based on the amount of fiber splicing needed, which is more than we anticipated, our original restoration date for the second section may push out. We will continue to share updated timeline information whenever possible and thank you for your continued patience.

 

August 15

The crews are making significant progress on their restoration efforts, but due to unexpected delays, our anticipated restoration timeline for the Bellavia Circle Dr., Canyon Rd., Meadow Wood, Sam St., and University Drive area is being shifted by approximately 48 hours. The rains and flooding meant the crews were unable to work for the safety reasons explained in our previous update. Also, PNM discovered damaged, unsafe poles that required immediate replacement in the area we needed to access. Our crews were required to postpone our work while they completed the pole replacement. This loss of work time means our expected restoration completion date is now Monday, August 19 or Tuesday, August 20. We also anticipate this section of the network will restore in two phases—the east half of the area will restore first, followed by west half between August 21-22. We will continue to share updated timeline information whenever possible and thank you for your continued patience.

August 8

Our contractors are on the ground and making repairs to restore connections that are yellow on our most-recent status map.

Based on the most-recent restoration activity, we anticipate the restoration date for the area that includes Bellavia Circle Dr., Canyon Rd., Meadow Wood, Sam St., University Drive will be August 16. This date could be impacted by storm activity for safety reasons—crews cannot be working in bucket trucks and doing pole work when there is lightning in the area. As crews make additional progress, we will share an updated timeline. Thank you for your continued patience.

August 2
We are engaging a contractor to assist with pole and line replacement work in the areas that are still awaiting full restoration. The restoration date for the area that includes Bellavia Circle Dr., Canyon Rd., Meadow Wood, Sam St., University Drive mentioned in our last update is now slated for August 9. We are still working on restoration in the other areas as well, and will share an updated timeline as soon as we’re able. Thank you for your continued patience.

Be aware we will be performing network maintenance in the early hours of August 5 during which you will experience a short service interruption. The work will begin at 12 a.m. and could extend until 6 a.m. on August 5. This will be a rolling outage as we gradually update equipment across the area. This means all customers will not be without service at the same time—but all customers will experience a short, 15-30-minute, interruption during the overnight hours. If you are still without service at 6 a.m., please reboot your cable modem and/or set-top box. If this doesn’t resolve the issue, please call us at 877-422-5282.

July 26

We reconnected the first customers 10 days after the disaster and now have restored services to 92% of all our area customers. But we’re not done yet.

The restoration map shows our efforts to date; but we also want to provide more detail on what’s next.

We expect to reconnect customers in the area highlighted on the map below by August 2; there’s also a list of streets and approximate address ranges (where relevant) for reference. If you have questions about your service, please call us at 877-422-5282 so we can investigate.

This target date assumes the weather holds so we can finish removing our damaged facilities and complete the needed installation work in a timely fashion. If this date needs to change, you will be notified here on the blog, but know we are working tirelessly to get everyone connected as quickly as possible.

This section of our network includes the following streets (or sections thereof):

• Bellavia Circle Dr.
• College Dr.
• Canyon Rd.
• Circle Dr.
• Convair Dr. (101-119)
• Crest Ct.
• Del Norte Dr. (406-632)
• View Pl.
• George P. White Dr. (100-208)
• John Christman Dr.
• Leon Farrar Drive (118-132)
• Meadow Wood
• Mecham (1214-1230)
• Raymond Buckner Dr. (300-307)
• Sam St.
• Scenic Dr. (101- 204) (201-605)
• Sunny Slope Dr.
• Tennis Ct.
• University Drive
• Valley View Dr.
• Venado St. (209-303)

All customers were issued a one-month bill credit. If you are still without service by your next month’s bill, you will receive an additional month’s credit. The credits may appear on your next statement depending on the timing of your bill. If you have any questions or concerns, please call us at 877-422-5282 so we can help.

If you have an outstanding bill, you can choose whether to make a payment now or wait until the credit is applied. We will waive any late payment fees since the outage began until services are back on at your address.

Once services are turned on in your area, you may discover an issue at your address. If that’s the case, please call us at 877-422-5282 so we can help troubleshoot and get a technician appointment scheduled if needed. We continue to have technicians working 7 days a week to help restore individual customer services.

Thanks again for your patience as we continue working hard to restore service for everyone.

July 22

Due to flooding taking down power poles, there are two areas without service today. We are in close contact with the power company about the plan for pole replacements so we can hang/rehang our own cabling as quickly as possible.

Our other restoration work continues. The weekend rains slowed some of our efforts, including the clearing of the burned facilities that needs to be completed before rebuilding can begin. As we are able, our crews are doing what they can to make progress to reconnect the final customers to the network.

July 19

Our teams continue to make repairs to the badly damaged areas of our network to restore services to everyone, but we do not have any major milestones to share today. Our next update will be on Monday, July 22.

July 18

Our technicians are continuing to push forward to make needed repairs to restore services to the remaining customers. As we have updates, we’ll share them here.

While we’ve been doing that work, we’ve also reached another recovery milestone: connectivity is back up for the final two cell towers we support in the area. This required the complete replacement for several miles worth of cable, but now residents of the impacted carriers should have a better experience.

Two more customer alerts you should be aware of:

1. We are working through the final details of a configuration change that will impact our equipment during a future overnight maintenance window between 12 -6 a.m. We’ll keep you posted on timing, but when it happens, it will be rolled out area by area. This means all customers will not be without service at the same time—but all customers will experience a short, 15-30-minute, interruption. We will confirm the timing of this planned outage here on the blog.
2. Our retail store will be closed this Friday, July 19.

July 15

We’re excited to share a big milestone: 90% of all TDS customers have been reconnected to their services.

This is great news for thousands of customers, but rest assured, our work isn’t over yet. We are still making repairs to the red areas in the map. These are the parts of our network that were heavily damaged in the fires and, as such, will take us longer to bring back online. The remaining restoration effort includes construction elements such as replacing poles, burying/hanging new cable, as well as replacing a variety of equipment. Given the time this work will take, blog updates here will become more periodic. Please know, even if we don’t have a milestone to share, we are continuing to make progress to reconnect every, single, customer to TDS service.

For those of you who have been waiting for TDS services to be installed, as of today, we are opening some technician time for new installations. This will not prevent or delay our individual customer repair follow-ups because we have brought in additional staff to help.

Finally, we sent a new communication to customers over email (all those we have email addresses for) earlier today. In case you didn’t receive it, we are sharing it here:

Subject line: TDS Telecom Service Restoration Update Hello, Thank you for your patience while we continue working hard to finish restoring services for everyone. We know it has been a difficult situation and some areas, including where our main network facilities are located, were hit harder than others. Given the recent flooding in addition, we sincerely hope this communication finds you and your loved ones safe. As of today, July 15, 90% of all TDS customers have been reconnected to their services. We’re thrilled with this tremendous progress—but we aren’t stopping here. We remain committed to reaching every single customer.

To those of you awaiting your restoration, please know we are working as fast as we can to put up new poles, install new cable, and replace equipment. Due to the extensive damage impacting the areas we haven’t been able to turn on yet, our repair milestones moving forward will be measured in longer intervals. As such, we expect the pace of our blog updates at blog.hellotds.com to slow. Still, even if there isn’t new information daily, rest assured we are working hard for you and making progress. We will continue to share any news and restoration date estimations as soon as we have them. Getting Help with Your Connection If you’re in a green area on the restoration map but your services aren’t working, please give us a call at 877-422-5282. We’ve brought in additional TDS associates to help customers and we will schedule a technician visit (if needed) at the earliest-possible appointment time. For the time being, we have technicians working 7 days a week to continue restoring individual customer services. Retail Store Hours Store hours at our 117 Vision Drive location are back to normal and we expect to be open 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. Monday–Friday. With the flooding, however, it’s possible these hours may vary to keep our staff safe. If you’d like to check the status before you head to our store, give us a call at 877-422-5282. Bill Credit Reminder   You’re getting at least a one-month bill credit—but if your restoration extends beyond this window, we will make sure to credit you for any charges that occur while your services are down due to this natural disaster. The credits may appear on your next statement depending on the timing of your bill, but if you have any questions or concerns, please call us at 877-422-5282 so we can help. We shared this in our previous email, but if you have an outstanding bill, you can choose whether you make a payment now or wait until the credit is applied. We will waive late payment fees applied since the outage began until services are back on at your address. Moving Forward If your services have been restored or your address is in a green area on our restoration map, this should be your final communication from us about our fire recovery. If you’re still awaiting restoration, continue to keep an eye on the blog for updates and you’ll be hearing from us again soon. Regardless of your service status, please don’t hesitate to visit our retail location or call us with any questions or concerns. As always, thank you for being a TDS customer.

 

July 12

While we’re still making progress on our repairs in the remaining areas, we have dozens of technicians responding to individuals trouble tickets. Our teams will keep working 7-days a week to address these issues and get folks connected who are in the green areas on the map. If you’re in an area that appears to be restored (yesterday’s map is still accurate) but your services aren’t up, please give us a call (877-422-5282).

As we said previously, we’re bringing TDS associates in from other states to assist. We haven’t started new installations yet—we’re remaining focused on troubleshooting and fixing individual connections for now.

We do not anticipate having any updates to share over the weekend. Our next update will be on Monday.

July 11

Great news! Nearly 85% of our customers are back up and running with all services. We’re also troubleshooting individual connection issues so, if you’re in an area that appears restored on the map but your services aren’t up, please give us a call (877-422-5282). We’ve brought in additional TDS associates to help and we will schedule a technician visit (if needed) at earliest-possible appointment time—which could even be the same day. For the time being, we are working 7 days a week to continue restoring individual customer services.

As a reminder we have issued a one-month credit to all area customers. Of course, if your restoration extends beyond this time frame, additional credits will be applied. Let us say that again: We will make sure to credit you for any charges while you are without service due to this natural disaster. The credits may appear on your next statement depending on the timing of your bill, but if you have any questions, please call us so we can help.

We are doing our best to maintain business normal hours of 8:00 a.m.- 5:00 p.m. Monday-Friday at our retail store at 117 Vision Dr., but with the flooding, it’s possible these hours may vary. If you’d like to check before you get in your car, give us a call at 877-422-5282.

 

July 10

Before today’s restoration update, we wanted to extend our thoughts and well wishes to everyone in the community impacted by the continued flooding. Our teams are, thankfully, safe and we hope you and yours are as well. We were able to open our retail store today, but with fewer staff due to the floods so please be patient (and careful!) if you come in.

In the overnight hours last night/this morning, we pushed out a software update to our new node equipment so everyone currently restored should now have access to TV/video. We also turned on services in a few more areas while also doubling backhaul line bandwidth to prevent congestion and ensure there’s plenty of network capacity for everyone.

If you’re in one of the green areas on the map but one of your services is not yet working, please do give us a call at 877-422-5282. We can help troubleshoot with you and, if needed, get a trouble ticket created.

July 9

Nearly 70% of our customers are back online! We’re thrilled to have so many of you reconnected—and, we have more good news to share: TV should be coming back up in the restored areas by tomorrow morning.

Related to that update, please note we will be using an overnight service window between 12 a.m. – 6 a.m. Wednesday, July 10. During that time, there will be a short duration outage while we re-reconfigure equipment to bring TV services back up.

We expect to restore services to many more customers by the end of the week. We appreciate everyone’s patience while our teams have been hard at work—thank you!

To make sure everyone is informed, we’d also like to share the following email that was sent earlier today to all customers who have an email address listed on their account:

Subject line: TDS Telecom Service Restoration Update

Hello, We greatly appreciate your patience as we continue our around-the-clock efforts to restore service in the Ruidoso area following the wildfires and floods that have devastated the region. We are pleased to report that TDS crews have made significant progress in recent days and have restored service to nearly 70% of customers as of today, July 9. For those in areas still without service, we expect the vast majority will come back online by the end of this week, barring any unforeseen circumstances. In addition, we will be re-establishing video services for many customers overnight tonight. To do this, we will utilize the repair window between 12 a.m.–6 a.m on Wednesday, July 10. There will be a short duration outage while we re-reconfigure equipment to bring TV services back up. We are grateful for our TDS crews’ tireless efforts following the loss of our central hub in the fires. We look forward to ramping up reconnections in the coming days. We will continue to share daily updates and outage maps at blog.hellotds.com and notify customers as their services come back online. BILLING REMINDER: All customers in our Ruidoso service area will receive at least a one-month credit, no matter if their services came back during that month. The timing of the bill credit may not align with charges on your current billing statement—but please know if you don’t currently see a bill credit, it is coming. Additional credits will be given to customers who remain without service beyond that initial one-month period. For customers who have an outstanding bill, it’s up to you if you want to pay it now or wait until the credit is applied. There will be no late payment fees until this outage is resolved; we will credit any late fees that have been applied since our outage began. Disconnection:  For customers who are unable to return home or to their business, or whose homes were destroyed in the fire, please reach out to our customer service team at 877-422-5282 to discuss options. If you need to cancel service, we will waive any associated fees. For any commercial customers, our account executives are available to discuss options and work to find the best solution for you and your business. Thank you for your patience and for being a TDS customer.

 

July 8
We’re delighted to report approximately 40% of customers are now reconnected to the internet, with TV services up for many. Reminder that, for now, we’ve been prioritizing internet services so your TV may not working quite yet—even if you’re in one of the green-shaded areas on the map. However, in great news, we expect the vast majority of our customers to be back online (and watching their favorite programs) by the end of the week. We think we have great momentum and expect things will be changing quickly if all continues going according to plan!

Here’s how things are looking today. You’ll note we’ve included some dates on the pending areas for when we expect them to be back up:

Relative to viewing and zooming in on the map on mobile, here’s a tip: rotate your phone horizontally and then click on the map. From there you can use your fingers to zoom in/out so you can view the streets and find your location.

July 7

We continue to make progress this weekend, with services restored to more than 3,000 customers and more areas expected to come back online soon. We expect to restore internet connectivity to a great majority of customers this week and will share more information when it becomes available.

 

July 6

TDS crews have made significant progress over the last 24 hours, reconnecting more than 1,000 Ruidoso-area customers to bring the total number of customers back online to approximately 3,000. In addition, we have begun to re-establish video services for some customers.

We are grateful for our TDS crews’ around-the-clock efforts to restore service following the loss of our central hub, and we look forward to continuing to ramp up reconnections in the coming days.

Below is our current outage map, with green indicating service restored and yellow areas to be restored soon. Please note that for areas in red, we expect the great majority of our service footprint will have internet connectivity restored in the coming week. Please keep watching our outage map for progress and estimated restoration dates.

July 5

Crews will continue to work around the clock this weekend and in the days ahead to restore services to more customers in our Ruidoso area. We’re making progress and have several areas we’re targeting to restore over the weekend.

Our outage map now shows estimated restoration dates, where available (these areas are highlighted in yellow). For areas in red, where service has not yet returned, we are aiming to provide an estimated restoration date soon.

July 4

More equipment arrived in the overnight hours to aid in ramping up service, with more neighborhoods expected to steadily come back online in the coming days.

A reminder: All customers in our Ruidoso service area will receive at least a one-month bill credit, no matter if their services came back during that month. The timing of the bill credit may not align with charges on your current billing statement – but please know if you don’t currently see a bill credit, it is coming.

Current outage map is below — green indicates areas that have been restored, and yellow is pending/coming soon.

July 3

More than 1,800 customers are now back online as TDS receives more equipment and support from across the country to restore services to the Ruidoso area. Most of Capitan is back online, though we are aware of issues in a few spots and are working to fix.

Our teams are working around the clock to get our network up and running for those still without service; we expect internet services for a great majority of our customers to be restored in the coming days. In addition, we are issuing bill credits to customers’ accounts beginning today. While the timing of the bill credit may not align with charges on your current billing statement, if you don’t yet see a bill credit, please know it is coming.

We also continue working to enhance our outage map, which can be found below. (Green indicates areas that have been restored, and yellow is pending/coming soon)

A communication will be sent to all customers today who have email addresses listed on their accounts. If you would like to be sure to receive future communications, please give us a call at 877-422-5282 so we can add that information.

July 2

We have now reconnected more than 1,100 customers, with more being connected each day. After receiving feedback, we are providing the below outage map with roads added in and more detail of the area, to allow customers more ability to zoom in and identify their neighborhoods (green indicates areas that have been restored, and yellow is pending). 

Our teams were on the ground today updating local officials and the public of our progress in restoring service. We emphasized our commitment to serving the community and continuing to work with local leaders to assist recovery efforts. In addition, we reiterated that customers will receive bill credits for time without service; that fees for cancellation or unreturned equipment will be waived; and no late payment fees will be charged until the outage is resolved (and any late fees that were applied since the outage began will be credited).

July 1

Our crews continue to make progress and have now restored more than 1,000 customers. Though much work remains, we expect to steadily reconnect neighborhoods in the coming days. In addition, our retail store located at 117 Vision Drive in Ruidoso reopened today, July 1.

June 30
We were able to turn on internet service to three more network areas on Saturday, despite the heavy rains and flash flooding in the afternoon. We expect to turn on internet to hundreds more customers today, but we are watching the weather forecast carefully given the potential for additional flooding. We will continue to making progress as conditional allow.

Reminder: At this time we are prioritizing internet service; TV and phone connectivity will follow.

June 29
We’re back up and running with the first area in our network! Check out this photo we snapped yesterday with the owners of Cedar Creek Market who were thrilled to be reconnected (and we were nearly as happy!).

It feels great to have the first customers reconnected to internet service but, rest assured, these are the first of many. Our teams are working around the clock to continue restoring service to more customers and we expect to continue steadily reconnecting neighborhoods in the coming days.

We’ll be sharing new maps showing the nodes that have been turned back on (shaded in green) so you can follow along:

Relative to the overall community restoration, for the sake of just making everyone aware, there is an upcoming planned power outage for Otero County Electric Cooperative: Home | Otero County Electric Cooperative, Inc (ocec-inc.com)

June 28

To summarize our restoration efforts to date, we have made repairs to our core infrastructure to deliver connectivity to critical services including:

• Cellular services for all area providers (and customers)
• Ruidoso High School to assist the National Guard and Southwest Area Incident Management Team 5 emergency response
• Department of Health and Human Services
• More than 20 businesses with direct connections—including hotels that are hosting workers arriving to aid in the rebuilding

While this work has been happening, our teams have been surveying our network to assess the damage and condition of our equipment, cables, and poles. We are also making a $10,000 donation to the Red Cross’ recovery efforts to help support the entire community in another way.

We’re also pleased to share that, on top of these activities, we’ve been building a temporary equipment hub to support turning on high-speed data services to areas of our network. That hub is nearly complete. Services will come up gradually, area by area and we’ll keep you up to date on the latest here. To be clear: internet will be the first TDS service that will be restored. TV and phone services will follow and we’ll keep you in the loop on our progress.

Our teams will continue working over the weekend. We have brought additional personnel and resources to Ruidoso and our teams are working nonstop to restore services as quickly as possible to our customers.

We understand there have been some questions about bills. Unfortunately, we are unable to stop all billing due to limitations with our billing systems—but we ARE issuing credits. If you have any questions about the timing of those credits or what actions you may need to take, please call and speak with our customer care team at 877-422-5282. We want to help!

Finally, our retail location at 117 Vision Drive in Ruidoso will be OPEN on Monday starting at 8 a.m. until 5 p.m.

June 27

All cellular towers we support now have connectivity with the exception of a single tower where repair efforts are ongoing. With the Ruidoso High School now up and running, yesterday we set up temporary service for the Department of Human Services/Children’s Youth and Family Services.

We expect our damage assessment to be complete by end of day tomorrow, if not sooner. That data is informing our restoration planning and prioritization. Our first focus is restoring services in downtown Ruidoso to support area businesses.

In our blog update yesterday, June 26, we shared the customer communication sent to all customers who have an email address listed on their accounts. If you didn’t receive it, know the copy of that email which includes a variety of frequently asked questions is available below for reference.

June 26, 3:38 p.m. MT
Last evening our teams opened a temporary connection to the Ruidoso High School to support the National Guard and others utilizing this location for recovery efforts and coordination. We continue to focus on making connections critical to the restoration efforts for the community while also assessing the condition of poles, cable, facilities, and network electronics to quickly enable temporary services where we are able.

Today we sent a communication (below) to all customers who have email addresses listed on their accounts. If you would like to be sure to receive future communications, please give us a call at 877-422-5282 to we can add that information.

We would also like to add one more reassurance which was not included in our email today: Please also know we will NOT be charging you for the loss of equipment if your home was burned in the fire. Give us a call if this is the case so we can take the necessary actions on your account.

Subject line: Updates about TDS service and restoration efforts

Hello, 

At TDS, our hearts go out to all those impacted by the recent wildfires. As the region rebuilds, TDS is committed to working side by side with residents and businesses to help the community get back on its feet.  

We wanted to reach out to you directly to share some updates about the state of TDS service in the wake of the recent disaster and help answer some questions you may have.  

What’s happening? 
If you have been following along with our updates on the HelloTDS.com blog, you know our main equipment hub for services in the area is a total loss. The electrical power to that location was also destroyed. We are now in the process of assessing damage to our outside plant including poles, buried and hanging fiber and coaxial cable, remote facilities, and network electronics.  

When will TDS start repairs? 
We have already started work to get back to normal as quickly as possible. In the last few days, we restored connectivity for 10 Ruidoso cell towers, as well as towers in Capitan, to aid in the disaster response efforts and help residents. Our next priority is standing up temporary service for first responders and schools/disaster relief locations. These actions are happening while we also work on our restoration plans for neighborhoods and businesses. 

We will continue to post updates on the HelloTDS.com blog to keep you apprised of our latest recovery efforts. 

When will services be restored? 
At this time we do not have an estimation for full restoration of services. We need to finish assessing damage; repair and/or replace melted cable and electronics across Alto, Capitan, Ruidoso, and Ruidoso Downs; bring in, set up, and program new equipment; restore commercial power; wait for and/or set replacement poles, etc. In short, the fixes will take some time, although we are working as fast as we possibly can. 

Am I being credited for my time without service? 
While we are busy working to get you back up and running, credits will be given to all Alto, Capitan, Ruidoso, and Ruidoso Downs accounts for at least one month’s service due to the interruption of service from the wildfires. The credit will appear over the next one or two billing cycles.  

Additional credits may be applied and will be dependent on the timing of service restoration at your address. Please note that you may still see bills at your normal rate. We are unable to cease the billing process to all customers at this time due to the variation of billing cycles and the anticipated staggered restoration.  

How do I change my auto bill settings? 
If you’d like to change your automatic bill payment settings, you can do that at any time in your online My Account settings. Our customer care team can also make that change on your behalf if you give us a call. 

What’s next? 
This is a tough situation for everyone, and we appreciate your patience. Our teams are working as quickly as possible to restore your service. We are committed to the community, and we look forward to continuing to serve you.  

Please reach out to our customer care team if you need assistance or have concerns about your account by calling 877-422-5282. 

As always, thank you for being a TDS customer.

 

June 25, 4:30 p.m. MT
We are pleased to report we have restored connectivity to an additional cell tower in Capitan. We are currently working towards restoring services to locations where response efforts are being staged with the high school being a top priority. We have additional staff arriving today to help further our assessment and restoration efforts.

Beyond our on-the-ground response, know TDS is continuing to communicate and collaborate with state and federal agencies, as well as other area businesses and utilities to inform our continued disaster response.

June 24, 3:20 p.m. MT
With the mandatory evacuation order now lifted, we expect it will take at least a week to complete a full assessment of our facilities. We are sharing some photos our team has taken from our initial surveys and while completing the restoration of cellular connectivity in Ruidoso.

Our equipment site that fed Alto, Capitan, Ruidoso, and Ruidoso Downs:

 

We are also seeing damage to cables that were in underground vault/hand holes:

We continue to work towards restoring cellular connectivity to Capitan and stand up services for first responders and other critical locations.

June 23, 6:05 p.m. MT

We participated in the Southwest Area Management Team Incident Command & Operations Live Event Update today Sunday June 23, 2024, at 5pm MDT. The recording may be available at: https://www.facebook.com/SWIMT5.

Below are the key portions of our statement:

TDS lost its central equipment hub known as a headend facility that serves Alto, Capitan, Ruidoso, and Ruidoso Downs—as well as the electric service feeding this facility. Based on our initial surveys, we also know our cable infrastructure has been damaged in many areas, which means repair or replacement will be necessary.  

The first step in restoration was to repair TDS’ main fiber optic transport cable that provides connectivity to area cellular providers.  

Thanks to an unprecedented effort by TDS teams, connectivity was restored to ten cell towers Friday night. We continue to work with our cellular partners to identify and complete repairs to additional towers. We are currently working to restore cellular connectivity to Capitan. This is due to the relatively undamaged condition of our network in that area, which we believe will make it possible to stand up services relatively quickly there. 

We are also working on a temporary network facility to restore services. TDS is prioritizing reconnecting services to first responders and other critical infrastructure. However, due to the limits on travel and access, we haven’t been able to safely perform a thorough assessment. For that reason, we do not have a timeline for full restoration yet.  

The fire has impacted so many of us—including our own associates—but we remain committed to serving customers in Alto, Capitan, Ruidoso, and Ruidoso Downs and look forward to reconnecting everyone to their services as soon as possible. We have a long road ahead with our long-term restoration work and appreciate everyone’s patience. 

 Customers can get daily updates on our progress on our HelloTDS.com blog. We will also be sending communications to our customers who have provided their e-mail addresses to us. We want to assure everyone we will be crediting impacted TDS customers during this time. 

1:33 p.m. MT June 22: Thanks to an unprecedented effort by our teams, we are pleased to report connectivity was restored to eight cell towers in the area as of last night. This will aid resident communications as well as the state and federal response. This is the first step of many to restore services to all customers in Alto, Capitan, Ruidoso, and Ruidoso Downs. In addition, we are also working towards a solution to credit customer accounts impacted by this service disruption so there is no need to call in regarding this issue at this time.

Please note: Although your neighborhood may not have been directly impacted by the fire, the TDS network hub that serves the entire area was a total loss. We also expect cables have been melted in the fire and entire spans to require replacement. We will learn more about the full scope of the damage when we are able to safely survey all sections of the network. In the meantime, we are making every effort to restore a temporary network facility.

12:50 p.m. MT June 21: Our teams have safely assessed the damage to TDS’ main transport cable that provides connectivity to area cellular providers. We are prioritizing these repairs to restore the community’s access to that critical communications resource. Damage assessments will continue when it is safe to do so to help inform our interim and long-range restoration plans. 

1:15 p.m. MT June 20: We’ve been able to investigate the Ruidoso area on a limited basis where it is safe for our associates to do so. Through this assessment, we will be able to understand what infrastructure hasn’t been destroyed or damaged to inform our interim and long-term restoration planning. We’re coordinating with other phone companies and cell carriers in the area to help expedite connectivity for residents.

1:25 p.m. MT June 19: Services remain offline for the greater Ruidoso area. We are working on restoration plans, but due to mandatory evacuations and the continuing danger the fires present, we are unable to fully assess the damage to our facilities nor make repairs. At this time, given the evolving nature of this disaster, we do not have an estimation of when services will be up and running.

1 p.m. MT June 18: TDS Telecom would like to thank first responders who are working tirelessly to contain the wildfires in the Ruidoso, N.M. area and keep residents safe. We can confirm TDS lost the central facilities that serve Ruidoso; we are grateful all local TDS associates evacuated safely. We are prioritizing safety and will only work to restore services and rebuild facilities when it is safe to do so.

TDS will continue to assess and monitor the impact from the wildfires as the situation evolves. We again thank first responders and local leaders whose quick actions on evacuation orders likely saved lives, and we send our deepest condolences to all those impacted by these tragic events.

For future updates on services, TDS customers can visit the company’s outage support page: https://tdstelecom.com/support/outage.html