JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – An internet outage that plagued AT&T customers across Florida on Wednesday was blamed on a cable in Jacksonville damaged by a road construction crew.
An AT&T representative told News4Jax Thursday, "Our technicians have been working around the clock to make repairs to cables damaged by a road crew in the Jacksonville area. As these repairs are completed, service is beginning to restore. We apologize for the inconvenience.”
The company also posted the message on social media.
UPDATE: Our technicians have been working around the clock to make repairs to cables damaged by a road crew in the Jacksonville area. As these repairs are being completed service is beginning to restore. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience.
— AT&T Help (@ATTHelp) May 21, 2020
DownDetector.com, which shows real-time outage information, showed reports of outages growing Wednesday afternoon and peaking about 9 p.m. The outage map shows problems stretching across the East Coast of the state from Jacksonville to Miami.
The station was told the outage affected about 50,000 customers, but thousands more -- including some News4Jax staff who are AT&T customers -- reported their internet speed was much slower than usual.
Some parents said it affected their children trying to submit schoolwork by late afternoon.
We have requested more details about the outage as AT&T releases more information.