Crews are working to repair a cut in a fiber optic cable that has affected MI-Connection customers much of the week.
In a news release this morning, MI-Connection said the cut in a 1,600-foot line running alongside a Lake Norman bridge occurred sometime Sunday and caused reduced bandwidth and Internet speeds for some customers.
System CEO David Auger said that one of MI-Connection’s two fiber backbone feeds went down. System officials notified XO Communications and a trouble ticket was issued to DukeNet, the carrier XO utilizes as part of their backbone run. Early Monday morning, DukeNet dispatched multiple crews to the scene of the cut.
“About mid-morning, we learned that the fiber cut was located within a span of fiber that crossed Lake Norman parallel to the 150 bridge (west of Mooresville),” he said. “We also became aware that the repair faced numerous regulatory restrictions, unlike typical fiber cuts, due to its unique location.”
Auger said that it is purely speculation at this point, but the fiber was somehow damaged, perhaps by a bullet, that creased the fiber casing and that subsequent cold weather and moisture triggered the break. The entire span will have to be replaced, which is a challenging and time-consuming process. The repair, said Auger, is expected to be complete by Friday.
Although Internet traffic has been re-routed to our other backbone provider, said Auger, the system’s available bandwidth was reduced by 50 percent. As a result residential customers may be having difficulty streaming video, particularly NetFlix. Also, some customers may be experiencing slower-than-normal speeds during peak usage hours in the evening. Commercial customers have seen little to no impact due to the greater availability of bandwidth during daytime hours.
Auger also said that prior to this incident, MI Connection had begun the process of adding another backbone provider to the two existing vendors. This will be finalized within the next 30 days and will prevent service degradation should fiber damage incidents occur in the future.
Customers who believe they have been affected, said Auger, can simply email the system at miccustomerrequest@mi-connection.com prior to March 1, 2012 and provide the account holder name, physical address and contact telephone number and a MI-Connection representative will follow up with them.
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