Comcast says cut in fiber lines caused nationwide internet outages

Cut fiber optic lines are being blamed for internet outages reported Friday by Comcast customers from coast-to-coast.

“We identified two, separate and unrelated fiber cuts to our network backbone providers,” Comcast said Friday after customers of its internet service provider, Xfinity, reported wide-scale disruptions.

“Our engineers worked to address the issue immediately and services are now being restored to business and residential internet, video and voice customers,” the cable giant said in a statement.

Comcast subsequently identified the affected providers as CenturyLink Inc and Zayo Group Holdings Inc, telecommunications companies that maintain infrastructure used by Comcast customers, Reuters reported.

“While the CenturyLink network continues to operate normally, on June 29, we experienced two isolated fiber cuts in North Carolina affecting some customers that by themselves did not cause the issues experienced by other providers. At this time, our technicians are working to restore the services,” CenturyLink said in a statement.

“Earlier today, Zayo experienced a fiber cut in the New York area. We immediately dispatched our local team who quickly restored the cut. All impacted services in the area have been restored,” a Zayo spokesperson told CNET.

Comcast currently boasts about 25 million high-speed internet customers in the U.S. The number of those affected was not immediately known.