Surge in CenturyLink landline outages leaves some customers without service for over a month

Lynn Keillor's landline telephone — her only phone — went dead on Dec. 4. She's gone round and round with CenturyLink since, getting several reassurances her service would soon return.

But it hasn't.

"I can understand a few days, I can forgive maybe a week," she said. "But over a month? That is absurd."

Other CenturyLink customers in Keillor's north Minneapolis neighborhood have had similar complaints about long outages in recent weeks, social media sites show. They have a lot of company: State utility regulators recently have been flooded with outage outrage targeting CenturyLink.

CenturyLink, the state's largest landline phone provider, acknowledged the rash of outages in a statement. It said they have mainly been in the Twin Cities and stem from "an unprecedented spree of copper cable thefts."

"These incidents, which are still ongoing, have been numerous and caused such extensive damage," the statement said. "We are having difficulty replacing the stolen material."

The company, part of Monroe, La.-based Lumen Technologies, said thieves have even returned to some locations to steal replacement copper.

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) fielded 107 consumer complaints last month about CenturyLink's landline service, 64% of which involved outages.

That compares with only 29 complaints about CenturyLink in December 2023 — mostly for problems that didn't involve outages.

For all of 2024, the PUC received 490 landline outage notices from CenturyLink customers, up 24% from a year ago. The PUC doesn't have data on outage duration.

Even before the recent surge in complaints, CenturyLink had run afoul of Minnesota's customer service laws, including over outages, the PUC concluded last summer after a multiyear review.

"Century Link failed in its duty to provide safe and adequate service … when deficient outside plant and equipment caused customers to experience multiple service disruptions over an approximately four-and-a-half-year period," the PUC said in a Sept. 17 order.

Regarding the recent spate of outages, a PUC spokesperson said this week the commission "is actively working with customers and highlighting these concerns to CenturyLink."

The Minnesota Attorney General's Office said Thursday that it encourages consumers dealing with CenturyLink outages to submit a complaint.

CenturyLink has 233,000 landline customers in Minnesota, 21% of the state's traditional phone service, according to the PUC. About a third of Minnesota households still subscribe to landline service, though as of 2020 only about 5% relied on it exclusively.

Fixed-by dates come and go

Keillor, a freelance writer and editor who lives in the city's Victory neighborhood, is one of them.

"I realize I am kind of a holdout," she said.

Still, her latest bout with CenturyLink — she's had previous outages — is testing her patience.

Since her phone went dead in early December, she's contacted CenturyLink online about 10 times, communicating for hours with customer service representatives through a chatbot.

"They have told me there is an outage and they have given me multiple days and times that it will fixed by," she said. Transcripts of Keillor's chatbot conversations show the company's "fixed-by" dates came and went.

On Dec. 16, a chatbot service rep told Keillor her landline had been "impacted by an area equipment issue." Four days later, another rep told her there'd been a "cable failure in the area." Wednesday, a chatbot rep said Keillor's "constant outage" stems from "trouble and damage" at a "common hub" in her area, but that her service would return by 3 p.m. Thursday. Late Thursday, that pledge was moved to 11 p.m. Jan. 13.

Leslie Grilley lives near Keillor in the city's Webber-Camden neighborhood, and her landline has been out even longer — since Nov. 12.

"I'm lucky I have a cellphone," she said.

Copper theft persistent problem

Grilley also contacted CenturyLink through the firm's online chatbot. When that didn't yield results, she spoke to LaTrisha Vetaw, her Minneapolis City Council member, and got the email address of a local CenturyLink government affairs executive.

The executive replied that Grilley's service was out "due to criminals entering our manholes, cutting and removing hundreds of feet of copper wire and then selling the stolen wire to recyclers. The damage … can require weeks to repair."

Copper thefts have indeed been soaring in recent years as the metal's value has risen. Vandals have ripped out copper wiring from streetlights and other public structures across the Twin Cities.

CenturyLink said Thursday that it is working with police to catch the thieves. In the meantime, finding replacement copper is difficult, hindering efforts to restore service, the company said.

Grilley said she made several appointments to have CenturyLink technicians come and diagnose her outage. She said she sat for hours waiting for them to arrive.

But nobody showed up, and CenturyLink later told her the company was "overbooked," Grilley said.

"I am a retired grocery clerk. I know something about customer service," she said. "This is horrible customer service."

Grilley and Keillor both said CenturyLink has given them bill credits for the lost service.

State ruling dings service record

State regulators began scrutinizing CenturyLink after union telecom workers filed a 2020 complaint with the PUC, claiming the company had failed to meet landline service quality rules.

The Minnesota Department of Commerce and the Attorney General's Office, both of which represent consumers before the PUC, investigated CenturyLink. They concluded the company failed to adequately maintain its landline system.

Between January 2019 and June 2023, 77% of CenturyLink's service quality problems resulted from deteriorating or failing equipment, the Commerce Department found.

The department also found that CenturyLink hadn't met the state's "95%" service outage objective in years. The law calls for landline providers to "clear" 95% of all "out-of-service troubles" within 24 hours of when they're reported.

CenturyLink challenged the investigations' findings, saying the state's service quality rules were vague, imprecise and no longer appropriate for the landline phone business.

The company also noted that it was difficult to find new technicians for old copper-based phone networks.

In March, an administrative law judge (ALJ) concurred with the Commerce Department's and AG's key findings. The ALJ wrote that CenturyLink hadn't come "reasonably close" to meeting the 95% outage remediation goal.

And the judge found CenturyLink's argument that it couldn't find qualified technicians "ironic" given that the company laid off about half of its technicians at almost the same time its performance dropped. The PUC largely adopted the judge's findings.

The PUC ordered a service quality remediation plan for CenturyLink, but declined to fine the company. CenturyLink said Thursday that it's "actively working to comply" with the PUC's order.