Fiber Cuts Responsible for Cox Cable Outages in RI, Northeast

UPDATE: May 10, 12:51 p.m. – Cox Communications reports internet and phone outages in Rhode Island have been restored, confirmed by customers’ sporadic reports throughout the state, after a telecommunications “backbone” (long-distance connections for regional providers) – network noted its technicians repaired the accidentally cut fiber cables.

Eric Wagner, a spokesman for Cox Communications, said service has been restored to Rhode Island following the erroneous cut by a third party performing construction, but declined to identify the company that made the error.

The telecommunications provider Level3, which builds, operates and maintains a global communications network serving governments and carriers, including to Time Warner Cable and to Cox Communications, released a statement on the outage, but also declined to identify the company that made the error.

“On Monday, May 9, our network experienced a service disruption affecting some of our customers with operations in the Northeastern United States due to a fiber cut caused by third-party construction. We know how important these services are to our customers. We dispatched our technicians and have restored service,” Level3 said in a statement.

Wagner recommended power cycling equipment (unplug, wait a few seconds, plug back in) for anyone in Rhode Island still experiencing troubles with their connections.

UPDATE: 9:50 p.m. May 9 –  Cox Cable has Tweeted that the service outage is the result of a third-party’s construction that cut a fiber cable.

“Our network is experiencing service disruptions affecting some of our customers with operations in the Northeastern United States due to a fiber cut caused by third-party construction. Our technicians are on site and working to restore service,” Cox Cable said in a tweet at about 9:48 p.m.

Original post: 4:30 p.m. May 9 – Thousands of Cox Cable customers across RI and in MA and CT are reporting service outages and difficulty reaching the utility to ask about the problem.

The Cox Customer Care Twitter feed is responding to several concerned customers, however.

“We are working to resolve these issues as quickly as possible! We appreciate your patience.”

At the Warwick Police department, which uses Cox Communications for its phone and internet service, internet and phones were working properly as of 4:34 p.m. The dispatch office also had access to the city’s 911 service, police reported.

On the Cox Cable outage page, a wide swath of the Northeast appeared affected by the outage, and multiple outages were reported from Boston, MA, Manchester, CT, The Bronx, NY and Cliffside Park, NJ, as well as Providence, RI.