Landscaping knocks out phone, internet services in Door County

DOOR COUNTY - Phone and internet services were knocked out Tuesday afternoon for three service providers in Door County after a main fiber optic cable was damaged by landscaping equipment.

The outages happened around 1 p.m., according to a report by the Door County Daily News website.

Mike Hogan, senior director of communications for Charter Communications (which owns and operates Spectrum), said in an email to the Advocate that the landscaping equipment damaged the line while working in a secured area, resulting in the outages for Spectrum customers.

Meanwhile, Katie Frey, senior manager of media and public relations for U.S. Cellular, said in a reply to the Advocate that brush clearing work was being performed when it damaged the fiber, causing outages for their customers.

The Door County Daily News reported that Frontier Communications customers also were affected.

Hogan said services were restored for Spectrum customers by 8 p.m. Tuesday, while Frey said U.S. Cellular services were restored Tuesday evening. As of Wednesday morning, Frontier had not yet replied to the Advocate for information on the outages.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.