Here’s what caused a cellphone and internet outage west of the Narrows for almost a day
An internet and cell service outage left Key Peninsula residents without service for almost an entire day this week.
Residents said on social media Monday that they were having trouble with CenturyLink phone and internet service. Others said Verizon cell service wasn’t working for them, either.
CenturyLink is part of Lumen Technologies.
The outage was “the result of a cut fiber and subsequent copper theft,” Tracey Conway, digital media lead at Lumen told the Gateway.
Service began being restored after 9 p.m. Monday night. For some it took until 6 a.m. Tuesday.
“We’re grateful to our customers for their patience throughout the event,” Conway said.
Key Peninsula Fire was affected by the outage.
KPFD posted on Facebook that their cellphone and internet coverage went down around 6 a.m. Monday.
“We are in the same position as all of you as we have no communications either outside of our radios,” KPFD said on Facebook. “If you have an emergency and your phone will not work, you will need to drive to our nearest staffed fire station (Wauna, Home or Longbranch) to report the emergency. The 911 system is still up and working.”
The station got service back around 11 p.m. Monday night, Anne Nesbit, public information officer for KPFD told the Gateway.
Residents posting on social media wondered if the Verizon and CenturyLink outages were connected.
Heidi Flato, with corporate communications at Verizon, confirmed a third-party fiber cut was the cause.
“Voice and data traffic travels between our cell sites and core of our network over fiber optic cable,” Flato said.
She said Verizon leases fiber from Lumen in the Key Peninsula area.
Since damage to their fiber impacted Verizon’s service too, they experienced the same outage.
A smaller group of Key Peninsula residents reported delays with AT&T cell service.
“On Monday, technicians completed an equipment upgrade to one of our cell sites in Key Peninsula, which may have affected service for some of our wireless customers in the area,” according to an AT&T spokesperson.
The AT&T network is now operating normally.
