Phone and Internet Services Back on in the Hill Country

Some parts of Hill Country experienced internet and phone outages that were caused by a fiber optic line from AT&T. Service was not restored until 8:00 in the evening on Tuesday.

Spokesman for AT&T Mike Barger stated that around 1:00 in the afternoon, a fiber-optic line had been cut.

Barger told officials that a third-party contractor was responsible for the damage when the line was cut as they were working on a roadside drain. All of AT&T services were affected by this outage. Furthermore, Verizon Wireless customers with landline service were also affected by this situation as well as some San Antonio office phone systems. If you live in Blanco, Fredericksburg, or Marble Falls, you were likely affected by the damaged line.

It is not unusual for a fiber-optic line to become damaged, due to the fact that they are often buried along highways, and under the ground. Sometimes the lines are buried in oceans as well. Damage is possible when a person carelessly starts to dig without first checking with officials to see where the cable is buried.

To repair the lines, first a work crew must dig up the affected line, then they must find the cut wire, going through each broken wire delicately, and then they must carefully splice it back together.

It is not uncommon for this to take several hours to fix.

The Police Chief of Kendall county, Gary Miller stated that around midday all of his landlines had no service. This was a problem because the county could not receive emergency calls at the time. As a result, the dispatcher had to use radios to relay the emergency messages.

After several hours, the lines were completely fixed, and service has been fully restored.