SHREVEPORT-BOSSIER CITY, LA (KSLA) -
AT&T customers can return to sending emails, tweeting, downloading and everything else they do with their 3G or 4G data plans.
The company says that it has successfully directed network traffic to its Dallas and Atlanta switching stations from its Shreveport switching station, which was the scene of a major data outage Tuesday evening.
Customers as far apart as Shreveport, Monroe and Alexandria had lost 3G and 4G data service after a contractor inadvertently dug into and cut a fiber optic cable about a mile outside the Shreveport switching center.
AT&T's temporary solution is to reroute data traffic through other switching centers. The permanent solution -- splicing and repairing the fiber optic line -- will be in place overnight, and customers should see normal service by Wednesday morning, AT&T spokesperson Sue Sperry says.
Some customers also lost their voice service, others did not, Sperry says. For the most part, though, it's AT&T's data service that was affected. Customers with access to WI-FI were not affected.
Customers lost their data service about 4:30 p.m. That's when alarms embedded in the lines signaled to AT&T that the line had been cut, Sperry says. Not long afterward, AT&T customers began calling to inquire about the outage.
"A lot of times, there are contractors, people doing construction work, who bore right into the lines. They don't have X-ray vision. It happens in areas where there is a lot of construction going on," Sperry says.
AT&T would not reveal the number of customers affected because the company wants to keep the information confidential. And she could not reveal the location of the switching center because of Homeland Security regulations. She'd only reveal that the cut in the line is about 1.5 miles from the switching center.
Stay tuned to KSLA for updates.
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