Service back on after widespread outage affects Service Electric customers across the region

BETHLEHM, Pa. — A cable TV, internet and phone outage left many Service Electric Cablevision customers in the region without service Thursday.

Officials with Service Electric called the outage “unexpected” and said the loss of service was the result of a “sever issue,” but did not provide further explanation.

Customers were restored by 2:30 p.m. according to a post on the company’s website.

The Schuylkill County Office of Emergency Management shared an outage map on their Facebook page Thursday morning showing large numbers of customers out from the Poconos down through Berks County, the Lehigh Valley and all the way to the Philadelphia area in into western New Jersey.

Schuylkill emergency officials say the outage included cable, internet and phone service and advised residents that needed to call 911 to use a cell phone to complete the call.

Kristopher Fessler with the Schuylkill County Office of Public Safety says dispatchers have only received 2 callers that stated they were unable to get through to 911 and had to switch to their cellular phone.