TWC and Cox battle major Northeast service outages

Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) and Cox Communications battled major service outages in the New York City area and other parts of the Northeast, the result of two fiber cuts to Level 3's network. 

According to local reports, the TWC service interruption started Monday afternoon. TWC confirmed the problem at 3:20 p.m. EST, and network outage tracker Down Detector reported 2,179 complaints by 3:50 p.m. Published reports had the outage ending at around 9 p.m. Monday evening, EST.

Also on Monday, Cox customers experienced service interruptions throughout Rhode Island. Internet and telephone service was reportedly restored around 9:30 p.m., according to Cox.

"Multiple fiber cuts at one of our network providers are affecting TWC phone and some TV services in the New York City area," TWC spokesman Eric Mangan said in an emailed statement to Patch.

"We are in continual contact with the provider on its repairs and we have restored additional TV networks through our own facilities," Mangan added. "We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this situation has caused our customers."

TWC said that Level 3 had two fiber cable cuts: one in Auburn, Massachusetts and the other was between a network segment from Philadelphia and Wilmington, Penn.

Stephanie Walkenshaw, a spokeswoman for Level 3, confirmed in an e-mail to FierceTelecom that they have completed repairs and its customers are now back online. 

"On Monday, May 9, our network experienced a service disruption affecting some of our customers with operations in the Northeastern United States due to a fiber cut caused by third-party construction," said Level 3 in a statement. "We know how important these services are to our customers. We dispatched our technicians and have restored service."

According to one local TV news reports, TWC is telling some affected customers that they'll be credited back a day of service on their monthly bill. 

Mangan told Patch that the majority of TWC customers in the NYC region are not affected. 

For more:
- read this Patch report
- read this Gothamist story

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