Frustrated customers should be back online, optimally.

Optimum Online customers faced with email and internet outages—some since Thursday—have now been assured by Cablevision that service is restored.

Customers have expressed their frustration to Patch from Connecticut to New Jersey. One Larchmont resident said he had neither been able to access his Optimum Online e-mail all morning nor reach the help center by phone.

Cablevision Systems Corporation made the following statement early this afternoon:

"The email disruption has been resolved.  The issue was caused by a digital mail storage device malfunction.  We believe that this was an extremely rare, one-time problem after more than a decade of uninterrupted email service and that no customer email was lost. We apologize to our customers and thank them for their patience."

Cablevision stated the following regarding the matter:

- The interruption began approximately midday Thursday and was caused by a digital mail storage device malfunction.  The company indicated that this was an extremely rare, one-time problem after more than a decade of uninterrupted email service

- The company underscored that no customer Internet access was affected, nor were any non-Cablevision email services (such as Yahoo and Gmail)

- The interruption impacted a minority of customers throughout the Cablevision service area; it was not geographically confined, nor were all customers affected 

- The utmost care was taken to restore service as quickly as possible while ensuring that no emails were lost