MCI Communications Services, Inc. v. CMES, Inc.

Carley, Chief Justice.

On March 30,2007, CMES, Inc. was performing excavation work in Stone Mountain, Georgia, when, at around 9:41 a.m., it accidentally severed an underground fiber-optic cable owned by MCI Communications Services, Inc., d/b/a Verizon Wireless. The severance rendered the cable incapable of transmitting telecommunications traffic. According to MCI, the severance caused 568,000 switched calls to be blocked and provoked 242 complaints from customers whose service was interrupted. Further communications disruption would have resulted except that MCI had spare restorative capacity…