Hundreds in Howard, Tipton counties lose internet as possible consequence
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The internet runs the economy. This fact was reinforced this week as hundreds, if not thousands, of residents and businesses found themselves disconnected and in the dark. The cause of this disruption may have been uncovered, as an excavation incident at the site of the future Howard County Jail resulted in the severing of a telecommunications line.
Reports began surfacing on the afternoon of Nov. 9 that internet service had been interrupted across the community, particularly for customers of T-Mobile, though the outages may not have been limited to that service provider. Banks, doctors’ offices, small businesses, and households from downtown Kokomo all the way to Tipton found themselves offline.
By mid-day on Nov. 10, a possible culprit emerged. Howard County Commissioner Jack Dodd confirmed the excavation mishap on the construction site of the future jail which may be responsible.
“Apparently a fiber optic cable was cut on the Howard County jail construction site at approximately 3 o’clock yesterday afternoon,” said Dodd. “The location services had cleared the area that the construction crews were digging. No utility services were marked to be located in that area by the location services.”
Dodd disclosed that the incident was reported to the appropriate service provider, and repair efforts began that evening and through the day on Nov. 10. He stated that repairs were completed by 1 p.m. that day.
However, customers still were reporting a lack of internet service as late as 3 p.m. on Nov. 10, and repair crews were still on-site at that time. Because of this discrepancy in the timeline, authorities cannot confirm that the fiber optic line severed by work crews was responsible for the outage.
“We do not know if this had anything to do with the Internet outage around the city, but all repairs have been completed,” said Dodd. “Because this cable was placed in an area that it should not have been, utilities will now be asked to move this cable to the appropriate location.”
The good news for the affected businesses and individuals is that internet service has resumed. Statements supporting this development have been released by those customers, confirming that they have access once again.
The incident reinforces the need to call 811 before any excavation activity takes place. Regardless of this alleged misstep by location services, a failure to request utility locations can easily result in significant disruptions of services, costing millions of dollars in disrupted access to utilities for hundreds or even thousands of residents and businesses.