Phones were out for a while. And then they were out for a while more. BellSouth knew the drill and was pretty quick to restore their services.

Restoring digital phone service was a "whoops" for the cable company.  When they realized some of their customers relied on cable for 911 phone service they made restoring those customers a priority but it really didn't matter. They tended to blame the power company for breaking their lines when restoring the power lines.

Cell phones worked somewhat for those on the road once switches were relocated out of the city (many were moved to Houston). Returning the switches to New Orleans caused another round of problems. Nine weeks after the storm Sprint phones with the 905 prefix couldn't receive calls from phones in the 504 area code.

Debris collection contractors were blamed for knocking out hardwired phone service, cable and electric distribution as they collected tree debris.