FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — People across northern Arizona couldn’t use the Internet or their cellphones for several hours Wednesday after someone vandalized a fiber-optic line that brings communications to a large part of the state, officials said.
Businesses couldn’t process credit card transactions, ATMs didn’t function, and even weather reports were affected in an area stretching from north of Phoenix to Flagstaff, about 100 miles away.
CenturyLink spokesman Alex Juarez said the problem was first reported around noon. Phoenix police were at the site of the vandalism near the community of Anthem, in an area near a river bed that isn’t accessible to vehicles.
Internet and phone service started to come back to some businesses in Flagstaff by 6:30 p.m. Juarez says all customers should be back online by 3 a.m. Thursday. He didn’t have an estimate of how many customers were affected.
Police said CenturyLink employees checking a fiber-optic cable in far northern Phoenix found that it had been cut through completely. The cable, which CenturyLink owns, supports various cellphone, television and Internet providers that serve northern Arizona.
According to Juarez, technicians from the Monroe, Louisiana-based company had to go through a long, tedious process of inspecting the line “mile by mile.”
Meanwhile, residents around Flagstaff tried to go about their daily business.
Zak Holland, who works at a computer store on the Northern Arizona University campus, said students showed up distraught and nearly in tears when he said nothing could be done to restore their Internet connection. Many of them needed to get online to finish school assignments.
“It was kind of a slap in the face if the Internet goes down,” Holland said. “It just goes to show how dependent we are on the Internet when it disappears.”
Kate Hance and Jessie Hutchison stopped at a Wells Fargo ATM to get cash because the local ice cream shop couldn’t take credit cards without a data connection. They left empty-handed because the outage also put cash machines out of service.
“It’s moderately annoying, but it’s not going to ruin my day,” Hutchison said.
Staff at Bookmans Entertainment Exchange in Flagstaff said they tried for about 45 minutes to restore their Internet connection before employees realized their equipment wasn’t the problem.
Students, businesspeople and others on lunch breaks often go to the popular bookstore and cafe to do homework, listen to music, watch movies and browse jobs online. Some set down their computers Wednesday only to walk out minutes later after learning Internet service was down.
Staff suggested to kids bewildered by the technical problem to go read a book.
Cordell Charley just finished some online banking when the outage happened and shut off his computer to grab lunch.
“You just feel lost,” he said. “It’s like, what happened?”
Mark Goldstein, secretary for the Arizona Telecommunications and Information Council, said CenturyLink’s cable likely has bundles of fibers that can be leased to multiple service providers. If the line only follows one direction with no alternative paths to reroute service, then any damage to the line will wreak havoc.
At Flagstaff City Hall, employees were unable make or receive calls at their desks.
“It’s quieter than usual,” said Stephanie Smith, assistant to the city manager. “The good thing is there is still lots of work to get done even without phones ringing. It is different when you don’t have that technology piece.”
The city was relying on the Arizona Department of Public Safety to assist with dispatching police and fire services. The city’s waste water plants and wells operate on systems that were unaffected by the outage.
In Prescott Valley, about 75 miles north of Phoenix, authorities said 911 service was being supplemented with hand-held radios and alternate phone numbers. Water and sewer facilities switched to manual operations, and residents could make utility and court payments with cash only.
Weather reports from the region weren’t able to reach anyone. During evening newscasts, Phoenix television stations showed blank spaces on their weather maps where local temperatures would normally appear.
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Associated Press writer Terry Tang in Phoenix contributed to this report.
Outage halts Internet, cell service in northern Arizona
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