Spectrum internet outage reported across the country
Internet services through Spectrum appears to be down across the country on Thursday morning, including the Outer Banks and northeastern North Carolina.
Business and residential customers of the service provided by cable giant Charter Communications began reporting their internet dropped out around 8:30 a.m.
DownDetector.com, a website that monitors outages, shows customers reporting their services are down in all 25 states where Spectrum is available as of 10 a.m.
Two weeks ago, services across much of North Carolina were disrupted by fiber optic cables damaged by impacts from Hurricane Helene near a data center in Upstate South Carolina.
A fiber optic cable was damaged by construction work taking place at Whalebone Junction on Tuesday, knocking off customers on Hatteras and Ocracoke islands for around six hours.
The cable involved with that outage is more than 20 years old, and acts a tracer line that makes it difficult for utility locators to accurately mark, according to multiple sources.
Locators instead have to use hand-drawn maps to attempt to find the cable that runs alongside U.S. 158 and U.S. 64 to Charter’s facility on Roanoke Island, which is complicated by shifting sands and water along the Outer Banks that can move it around.
That cable has been damaged multiple times, due in part to the difficulty of locating it. Along with Tuesday’s incident, in 2023 the cable was cut during road work at Nags Head Town Hall, construction near milepost 4.5 in Kitty Hawk, and several times along U.S. 64 in Manteo.
Some customers received automated phone calls with the following message shortly after 10 a.m.
“We have detected an outage affecting your Spectrum service. Our data shows that you have recently experienced similar issues.
We apologize for the inconvenience and are alerting our technicians to further investigate your service. In the meantime Spectrum crews are working quickly and safely an estimate restoration by 2 PM.
To help you plan accordingly, we will provide progress reports every two hours until services restored. Expect your next update by 12 PM.
There is no need to contact customer service during the outage as these notifications will include the latest updates.”
A spokesperson with Charter had not responded to an email request for comment on Thursday’s outage as of 10 a.m.
This is a developing story, stay with SamWalkerOBXNews.com and the Island Free Press for updates.
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