Severed Fiber-Optic Cable Disrupts Service Across U.S.

(TNS) — A cut fiber-optic cable was being blamed for one of a series of Internet outages Friday that briefly interrupted 911 services in Gig Harbor and created Internet problems in parts of the Seattle area, Portland, southern Idaho, and at least a dozen other regions across the United States, according to news reports and CenturyLink, whose customers were affected.

The cable cut occurred just after 5 p.m. between Gig Harbor and Burley and briefly disrupted 911 service for about 100 customers, according to CenturyLink spokesperson Kerry Zimmer, who added that affected “911 services have been rerouted there.”

Zimmer said crews had also resolved a second, unrelated outage in the Boise area, but did not have information about numerous other Internet outages that were being reported Friday night on social media and on specialty news sites.

The newsite DownDetector showed a cluster of outages in numerous communities across the United States, while a Twitter post reported outages in “Portland, Albuquerque, Boise, Salt Lake City, Denver, Seattle, Los Angeles, Dallas, Meridian, and Phoenix.”

However, Zimmer warned that such reports had not been confirmed.

“We are also aware of Downdetector reports about our network in Seattle,” Zimmer said in a text sent in response to questions from The Seattle Times. “These reports are not accurate. The CenturyLink network continues to operate and we have been informed that any impacted services have been restored.”

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