BendBroadband customers who have received service notification messages from the company on their phones or Internet browsers in the past month should not be alarmed, officials said last week.

The messages are part of the cable provider’s new communications tool that allows the company to inform customers in certain neighborhoods of potential service interruptions, said Marketing Manager Lance Judd.

”We usually try to do whatever we need to do in the early mornings to avoid interrupting services,” Judd said. ”But this allows us to inform customers in certain areas of interruptions in a timely fashion.”

He added that automated phone calls, which are part of the notification system, are needed because not all customers have BendBroadband’s Internet service.

”It’ll definitely be service-related (calls) only,” Judd said. ”We’re not going (to use the tool) to sell anything to the market.”

Some Central Oregon consumers have already received contact from the system, informing them of the notification tool’s activation.

Angelo Micheletti, a retiree living near Bend, said he has received a message on his Internet browser, although there haven’t been any calls.

”Personally, (I) would prefer they don’t call,” Micheletti said. ”The message on the Web is enough for me.”

He added that he wouldn’t mind if the browser messages are used to inform consumers of channel additions or service interruption.

”This way, hopefully, we’ll find out (about new programming) automatically,” Miche-letti said. ”I’m still waiting for the announcement of ESPN2-HD, but I’ve always been a dreamer.”

John Farwell, vice president of business operations with BendBroadband, said the service has been planned for about a month, partially to relieve the volume received by the company’s call center during service slowdowns.

Farwell added the new notification system should help during scheduled system maintenance in the near future.

”It is not our intention to blast people with calls,” he said. ”We’re going to be very sensitive to our customers, and we want to use the system very sparingly.”

Officials added that the company continues to pursue additional high-definition content and plans to launch on-demand programming from Oregon Public Broadcasting within a month.

For more information, customers can visit www.bend broadband.com or call 382-5551.