Fiber Optic


Google Fiber contractor caused $150,000 in water main damage

The Charlotte City Council will vote Monday on a $150,000 payment for repairs made to a water main damaged while a contractor was laying Google Fiber lines. Google Fiber is laying over 3,000 miles of fiber-optic cables throughout Charlotte as the technology giant installs its high-speed Internet service. The new […]


Neighbors concerned about safety in fiber line construction

Residents of a Huntersville neighborhood contacted Channel 9 after they said AT&T’s fiber line work has caused a string of gas and water main breaks in the area.

A gas line was hit Monday night on Harvington Drive. It was repaired, but neighbors said they are tired of the problems.

The issues started last week when a contractor installing AT&T fiber lines accidentally severed AT&T service lines for the neighborhood. The service was out for more than 12 hours.

A contractor then cut a water line. The gas line that was cut Monday night caused a gas leak, and firefighters had to block off several streets.

Channel 9 anchor John Paul spoke with the neighbors about their complaints and learned that contractors are installing fiber optic lines.

Bill Clegg is not happy with the working being done in his neighborhood.

He showed Paul where fiber crews under contract with AT&T installed boxes in his yard in Huntersville. Clegg said he had no say in the matter and AT&T was granted an easement to install the cables, which provide high-speed Internet service.

“I didn’t realize they could come 10 feet to put a box in my yard for service I may never want down the road,” Clegg said.

Neighbors said that between their yards being torn up and their utilities being cut off, they are fed up.

“They’re tearing up my yard. They’re disrupting my lifestyle. I’m not very happy,” neighbor Ellen Law said. “You can see what they’ve done here. It’s a big mud hole.”

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Construction mishap disrupts phone service

A construction dig that cut a CenturyLink fiber optics line near Casselton on Monday disrupted phone and rerouted 911 service in Jamestown and Valley City. “There was a large impact to both cities and we are not sure of the exact number impacted at this time,”said Rachel Woodman, CenturyLink public […]


Contractors installing Google Fiber accidentally cut gas line

Contractors installing Google Fiber lines hit a gas line Monday afternoon, according to Charlotte Fire Department.

The gas line was cut at 4:51 p.m. in the 5900 block of Waterelm Lane. No evacuations were needed and traffic was not affected. No injuries were reported.
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Another gas line was cut close to the area in July while contractors were also installing Google Fiber lines.

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Fiber optic line cut during construction affects hundreds

A fiber-optic line cut during construction beneath West Broadway in south Dickinson affected hundreds of Consolidated customers Wednesday night and led to upward of $40,000 in damages for the telecommunications company. Two major fiber-optic conduits were cut near the intersection of Broadway and South Main Avenue, Consolidated Chief Operating Officer […]


Georgian woman cuts off web access to whole of Armenia

An elderly Georgian woman was scavenging for copper to sell as scrap when she accidentally sliced through an underground cable and cut off internet services to all of neighboring Armenia, it emerged on Wednesday. The woman, 75, had been digging for the metal not far from the capital Tbilisi when […]


The One Fiber Optic Cable No One on the Dig for Tysons Rail Wants to Hit

This part happens all the time: A construction crew putting up an office building in the heart of Tysons Corner a few years ago hit a fiber optic cable no one knew was there. This part doesn’t: Within moments, three black sport-utility vehicles drove up, a half-dozen men in suits […]


The Backhoe: A Real Cyberthreat

At half-past noon on Jan. 9, cable TV contractors sinking a half-mile of cable near Interstate 10 in rural Arizona pulled up something unexpected in the bucket of their backhoe: an unmarked fiber-optic cable. “It started pulling the fiber out of the pipe,” says Scott Johansson, project manager for JK […]


Buried trouble: Owners dig up costly repairs

Excavation is the main cause of damage to lines such as the gas service being installed above, utility officials say. “Out of sight, out of mind” might work for relationships, but it certainly does not for homeowners’ responsibility for what’s underneath their property. Property owners are usually responsible for any […]