About 2,000 RCN internet and cable TV customers in Massachusetts lost their service for several hours Wednesday after a fiber optic cable was mistakenly cut during some digging on Kimble and Magazine Streets in Boston.
The cable was cut around 7:45 a.m., which meant thousands of RCN customers couldn’t Google, Tweet or send business emails. Tech analyst Larry Walsh says an outage like this isn’t a big surprise because — just like electrical and telephone cables — fiber optic cables are buried in the ground or strung over our heads.
"These things do happen periodically on all networks," he said. "This is not unlike seeing a water main or gas line being cut by construction workers, and you see a temporary disruption.
Walsh, chief analyst for the 21-12 Group, a tech research and consulting firm, says these types of outages don’t usually last more than a few hours — which is a good thing, because when the internet goes down, business stops.
"If you’re a home user, this is an inconvenience, but if you’re a business … nobody conducts business without being affected somehow," he said.
The majority of internet and cable service was restored by mid-morning. RCN serves just over 860,000 customers in Massachusetts.
