Location leads to internet, phone, TV outage lasting to Saturday

A bad location led to extra time being needed to repair damage that caused an internet, telephone and television outage in a large swathe of north-central Montana, a Charter Spectrum official said this morning.

Charter Spectrum spokesperson Danielle Dunn said the location of damage to a fiber-optic cable owned by a third party led to the extended outage.

Charter Spectrum reported Friday that the services went out Thursday night in locations including Havre, Chinook, Harlem and Great Falls.

The damage to the third-party carrier’s fiber-optic network disrupted services for Spectrum customers until Saturday evening, Dunn said.

Crews were unable to access the site until Friday morning for safety reasons. The damage occurred on an aerial line over a ravine on private property. Crews worked into late Friday night until it was again deemed unsafe to continue working due to both the terrain and the lack of daylight.

Dunn did not say where the outage occurred.

“Work resumed Saturday morning and our engineering team confirmed that services were restored Saturday evening,” she said. “We appreciate our customers’ patience while we worked to remedy this significant outage caused by damage to a third-party carrier’s fiber-optic network.”