System glitch downs VTel internet for 90 minutes this morning

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC

Computer cards that control large internet routers for Vermont Telephone Co. failed this morning, shutting down internet access for customers in large portions of the company’s coverage area for up to 90 minutes.

VTel covers Vermont communities from Saxtons River to Killington, including Grafton and Chester.

“It was baffling,” said VTel  CEO Michel Guite on Friday afternoon. “Everything in the network has a backup, but the redundant cards failed within moments of each other.”

Guite said that some customers lost phone service as well as internet as company techs raced to find a solution that would bring the network back up.

“It shouldn’t go down. We can’t have it go down,” Guite told The Telegraph. “Hospitals rely on us, schools rely on us. We’ve had slowdowns from time to time and other problems, but not this kind of system failure.”

“Those cards are sophisticated equipment and only a year and a half old,” said Guite. “So this was unexpected, but we are looking at how we can do a better job of redundancy in our network so this doesn’t happen again.”