BY: STAFF REPORT | BocaNewsNow.com
UPDATE: 6:30pm — AT&T spokesman says it’s unclear when major fiber cut will be fixed. Won’t discuss distance learning, school impact. Unclear if incompetence or other issue leading to outage now at least seven hours.
UPDATE 3:54 p.m: AT&T spokesperson Lesley Merritt will not commit to the repair being completed in time for school on Friday. That potentially affects thousands of “distance learners“ in south Palm Beach County.
UPDATE: 3:12 p.m: AT&T confirms a fiber cut and has issued this statement: “We are working as quickly as possible to repair a fiber cut that is affecting internet service for some customers in Palm Beach County.” It is unclear exactly how many homes are affected, or whether alternate plans need to be made for the thousands of families relying on AT&T for “distance learning.” Roughly 70,000 students in Palm Beach County are still learning remotely.
DELRAY BEACH, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) (Copyright © 2021 MetroDesk Media, LLC) — AT&T is experiencing a significant broadband outage in portions of South Florida. Customers in Delray Beach and Boca Raton were knocked offline within the past 30 minutes. AT&T is now texting customers to advise that the outage could last 4-5 hours.
The outage comes at a bad time — tens of thousands of students remain in “distance learning,” and businesses continue to rely on high speed data to conduct remote operations.
It was not immediately clearly what led to the outage or the total number of customers affected.
AT&T’s fiber optic broadband has been overall flawless during much of the pandemic across South Florida. Check back for updates.
LOCAL JOURNALISM SUPPORTER.
