July 01--Internet, phone and cable service to customers in Northern California were compromised Tuesday after authorities say a cluster of fiber-optic cables were vandalized in the Bay Area.
A suspect is believed to have entered an Alameda County manhole and severed multiple fiber-optic cables housed in a subterranean vault, causing service disruptions in the Bay Area and Sacramento, FBI spokesman Greg Wuthrich said.
The FBI is coordinating the investigation into the attack with local law enforcement. Officials did not disclose the exact location of the incident.
The incident damaged fiber-optic cables owned by at least two companies, Level 3 and Zayo. Both companies have fiber lines used by Wave Broadband, whose customers stretch from Silicon Valley to the U.S.-Canadian border.
Wave Broadband spokesman Mark Peterson said the severed cable lines primarily affected customers in suburban areas around Sacramento and Rocklin.
Customers were expected to have slow Internet service and partial TV service. Phone service is being restored, Peterson said.
"It's a huge inconvenience, but it's not a comprehensive outage," said Peterson, who could not provide statistics on the number of customers who were affected.
Tuesday's incident is the latest vandalism to strike fiber-optic cables in the Bay Area, Wuthrich said.
Since July 6, 2014, fiber-optic cable lines were intentionally severed in Fremont, Berkeley, San Jose and Walnut Creek -- at least 10 locations in all, according to the FBI.
Anyone with information about the vandalism is asked to contact the FBI at (415) 553-7400.
