Video: Internet Outage in Eupora Impacts Local Businesses

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***UPDATE: As of about 4 p.m., internet service has been restored.

EUPORA, Miss. (WCBI) — Eupora is without internet tonight, causing many businesses and shops to change the way they do business.

And it’s costing them money.

Several businesses shut their doors early because internet service provider AT&T U-Verse has been out of service for more than a day.

Eupora Attorney, Hays Burchfield is a day behind on his legal work after AT&T U-Verse Internet service went down on Wednesday.

“The frustration are getting loan papers from banks. I can’t download anything from the internet to do loan closings for people,” says Hays Burchfield.

Burchfield called AT&T to report the issue, but he says the company left him with more questions than answers.

“They’ve heard from me and that they are working on the problem their technicians are working on the problem but she couldn’t tell me if they would have internet back up today or when,” says Burchfield.

Some Eupora residents have been without AT&T U-Verse service since late Tuesday afternoon which is making it hard for some businesses to make money.

Nabors Home Center Hardware store manager, Jody Johnson, says the outage forced him to close the store early Tuesday.

Nabors says still couldn’t accept anything but cash or checks 24 hours later.

“Our computers are out and we have no way of looking up prices as far as quoting and doing receipts,” says Jody Johnson.

Johnson says every minute the internet is down, the store is losing money.

“Losing market share customers if they don’t have cash on hand they have to drive to another town to get products,” says Johnson.

Mayor Dan Burchfield says the town had the same problem before, but it’s never lasted this long.

“Leads me to believe that it’s a hardware problem at our switching station and I wish they would have somebody here but I certainly have not gotten a call from their customer representative,” says Mayor Dan Burchfield.

Burchfield says AT&T service during this outage may cause him to change companies at his home.

“Something that is prolonged we’re going to have to shop around for a more stable internet provider,” says Mayor Burchfield.

Eupora residents we spoke with say other towns in Webster County have experienced similar outages, but nothing has been confirmed.

We were not able to reach anyone at AT&T for comment.

Categories: Local News

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