[UPDATE 8:30 p.m.] Internet and Phone Outage Slams Humboldt and Mendocino
A massive internet and phone outage situation has blasted holes in the schedules of residents and businesses alike on the North Coast. Banks, colleges, live streaming radio stations, businesses of all stripes are unable to function at full capacity as internet and phone have ceased to function.
According to tweets from County of Humboldt and Senator Mike McGuire, Fiber cable has been cut which impacts Humboldt and Mendocino County. Estimated time to repair? 12 hours!! Yikes!
UPDATE 12:21 p.m.:
911 is receiving calls, though traffic is a little lighter than normal. If you can place the call it should be able to get through to us.
— County of Humboldt (@HumCoGov) September 3, 2015
UPDATE 12:22 p.m.:
The fiber cut happened in Hopland. Reports from thru out North Coast of impacted land line & cell service. Crews on scene now.
— Mike McGuire (@ilike_mike) September 3, 2015
UPDATE 12:55 p.m.:
911 calls in Mendocino Co.: on land line use 459-5336. Cell phone: TEXT 489-2749. If not working go to Police or Fire Dept. for help.
— NWS Eureka (@NWSEureka) September 3, 2015
UPDATE 1:30 p.m.:
UPDATE 1:39 p.m.:
UPDATE 2:26 p.m.:
Just talked with AT&T again. No update on restoration timeline. Crews are on scene of the fiber cut, additional crews rolling in.
— Mike McGuire (@ilike_mike) September 3, 2015
UPDATE 2:45 p.m.: According to Paul R, a spokesperson for Assemblyman Jim Woods,
We do not yet know what caused the cut, we are hoping to have that information shortly
There is a redundant fiber line that runs east along hwy. 36, we have not heard back from AT&T as to why that has not averted this outage.
At this point there is no timetable for service to be restored.
We don’t have a number for the economic impact but most people lost service – phone, internet, credit card scanners, etc. very early in the day and we are well into the afternoon with no restoration in sight.
I am sorry we don’t have more information at this point, we will do our best to keep you up to date as things develop.
UPDATE 4:33 p.m.:
Talked with AT&T: Reports are coming in that a significant dirt and rock slide caused the service outage. Location: 5 miles south of Ukiah.
— Mike McGuire (@ilike_mike) September 3, 2015
UPDATE: 5:36 p.m.:
From AT&T: Service restoration estimate is overnight. Residents should plan on no service for the evening. Hope to have more specifics soon.
— Mike McGuire (@ilike_mike) September 4, 2015
UPDATE 5:57 p.m.: Tweet from Representative Jim Wood.
Just off phone with AT&T. Repairs underway some customers are back online full service restored by early tomorrow morning. Questions remain
— Jim Wood (@JimWoodAD2) September 4, 2015
UPDATE 8: 30 p.m.: Senator Mike McQuire tweeted,
From AT&T #1: "The fiber had been cut in a remote location in what appears to be an act of vandalism."
— Mike McGuire (@ilike_mike) September 4, 2015
From AT&T #2: "We (AT&T) are cooperating with law enforcement on an investigation of the matter."
— Mike McGuire (@ilike_mike) September 4, 2015
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I have Comcast internet in Mendocino which is out.
how in the world did my internet and phone stay working ?????
Humboldt State University has internet but the phone systems are out. We can still call between offices inside of HSU.
College of the Redwoods had internet issues today (may still, but I’m home in Eka now). Home is fine.
Oddly, at CR people in class could use the wifi on their laptops to get online, but couldn’t get online with the school computers that were hardwired.
I have a T1 through ATT it is down in Eureka. Internet through Suddenlink is up.
My straight talk phone won’t work for nothing only WiFi ..no 911 or calls or text nothing
I think this is most that just a cut most of the US is out right now.
I’m not seeing that when I look across the US. I do see some impact but nothing large.
Kym, This site looks real time if you want to check it out. Not sure if you need the id and number at the end of the address http://www.outageanalyzer.com/?id=15200670
Connectivity has since improved, but several hours ago there were considerable AT&T outages in SF, LA and on the east coast from NYC to Chicago and points south.
[…] The cut that severed the umbilical cord connecting Mendocino and Humboldt Counties to the internet and …. Now, the Fortuna Police Department is asking everyone to stay off their phones unless they have an emergency. […]
I’ve been on the internet at the Mendocino county courthouse for at least 1/2 hour. It was out 15 minutes prior at the Motel 6 in Ukiah, and 1/2 hour before that at Schatts, which also could not take credit cards. People have been walking right past me talking about the internet outage going on. Odd.
Wonder if that’s why Social Security checks are not showing up at the bank? I don’t have AT&T but maybe the Bank does……Wasn’t EBT and credit cards down last week?
Two fibers run along hwy 36 one in the ground(att) and another on the high voltage line(L3). The att fiber also goes from 36 up to weaverville. att will never let anyone but gov get on the fiber as its over sold. It is also an older single mode fiber installed in the late 90’s. The L3 fiber was put in under the rural broadband tax we all pay. one would think it would be easy to get on….but you need to be a huge account $20k+ a month min. Two current splice points one at wild wood and the other at mad river.
Please if you got the time write you local district reps and tell them to help expand internet around the 5 counties, force pg&e and others to allow lines run on current infrastructure.
Thank you.
Odd how the outage hit some services and not others in Humboldt. Twice a guy couldn’t call me from New Zealand, he said I never picked up, but the phone never rang on my end. But 10 minutes later we were doing a Skype video call.
101 net link working. U.S Cellular not so much. I will go way out there and suggest Jade Helm….kidding,…I mean I hope not.
netlink101 gets most of its bandwidth from the L3 line on the high voltage not the att line. The only other bandwidth in our neck of the woods comes up 101 and is over sold and never heads east from 101.
OMG, no internet! (sarc)
Withdrawal symptoms are starting.
Just got service back at 1:55 a.m. Could not get internet service at all. Not with iphone (Verizon) or computer (Att Uverse)? Directv television worked fine except for local (Eureka) stations. Didn’t know what was going on…..missed you Kym & local news.
Ack! That is terrible! At least I had internet.
Let’s see, we spend umpty-ump billions on homeland security, we are scanned and searched every time we enter a public courthouse, or try to get on an airplane, the country has been on high alert for over a decade, and then one wire gets cut and a large part of California loses phone and internet service? The so-called redundancy wire doesn’t work, after being installed at what cost? Millions? Now we hear that it’s really too old and too small to handle the service. It appears that police and fire may not have backup service either. We are so lucky that home-grown terrorists are so rare because for all the money and all the inconvenience, the basics don’t seem to have been covered. If we were in a country with a more primitive legal system there would be executions over this. We are civilized, so we’ll have blue-ribbon commissions investigate for a couple of years while those in charge hope it all blows over. It will turn out that it is no one’s fault because no one was in charge of seeing that the communications system could withstand an attack by a guy with bolt cutters, or a road grader operator making a mistake, or whatever cut that wire. I’m getting bleary from repeated “wake-up” calls showing how inept the government is at keeping us safe, which is, really, its main function. Remember the Ferndale earthquake which knocked over the main communications tower near Eureka and communications were down during an actual emergency? No one planned for the earthquake knocking down the tower, for some reason. Now no one planned for the wire getting cut. Are there other parts of the country where one wire is all that provides communications? Is there a plan in case more than one thing happens at a time? It’s enough to make you buy a year’s worth of canned food and stock it in the cellar “just in case.”
This seems all on ATT. It has redundancy but seems to have oversold that redundant capacity as so few bandwidth options into the 5 counties. ATT was able to reroute 911 and some other gov services leaving the other non critical services in the dark so to speak.
The only way to get more hard links in are to come off hwy 5 and all the way over. The other option is wireless but since the forest dept owns most peaks and is broke it wants to charge insane fees to lease 6 square feet you can forget about that. Sierra Pacific Industries is at least 1/4th the price to lease a little tower space from but is a crap shot getting requests to be seen.