Wave Broadband Service Hit in 'Coordinated Attack'

Wave Broadband customers in Sacramento, Calif., and other areas were suffering Internet, TV and phone outages that Wave blamed on fiber cables cut in an apparent "coordinated attack," news reports say.

News outlets including KCRA.com reported this statement from the broadband provider: "Three major fiber cables connecting the region have been physically severed in what appears to be a coordinated attack on multiple internet carriers beginning at 4:20 a.m. Tuesday morning." 

In an overnight update, Wave Broadband reported: "The disruption to service in the Sacramento and Rocklin markets due to the fiber cut of several partner carrier providers has been resolved. As of about 11:40pm Tuesday night, phone, TV and internet services are operating normally."

Reports, including one in USA Today, indicated the fibers cut were owned by backbone providers Level 3 and Zayo, and that Wave Broadband was among their customers. Sacbee.com reported that Wave crews were trying to repair the damage, which disrupted TV and phone service in addition to Internet access. Wave has 415,000 customers in Washington, Oregon, Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay area.

The newspaper said Wednesday that the FBI was investigating "at least 11 physical attacks on high-capacity Internet cables in California's San Francisco Bay Area dating back a year, including one early Tuesday morning."

Image via USAToday.com and downdetector.com.

Kent Gibbons

Kent has been a journalist, writer and editor at Multichannel News since 1994 and with Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He is a good point of contact for anything editorial at the publications and for Nexttv.com. Before joining Multichannel News he had been a newspaper reporter with publications including The Washington Times, The Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal and North County News.