Windstream internet restored in Beatrice, surrounding areas
Windstream customers in Beatrice suffered a widespread internet outage Friday after two of the company's fiber-optic cables were cut in separate locations.
The company said service was restored shortly before 2 p.m.
Scott Morris, a spokesperson at the Little Rock, Arkansas-based telecommunications and internet company, said one cable was cut between Lincoln and Seward, and another between Lincoln and Milford.
"The outage didn't start until the second cut occurred," Morris said. "... One of them has been repaired, and that restored service."
At 11:37 a.m., the company sent out a text alert to say it was "working to restore service as quickly as possible."
The company later issued a statement, saying, "We experienced two separate fiber cuts that impacted about 9,000 voice and broadband customers west of Lincoln starting at approximately 10 a.m. today. We immediately mobilized crews to begin repairs. Services will begin to restore as soon as one of the cuts is repaired. We appreciate our customers' patience."
Customers unable to reach help at the company's support number drove to its office on Sixth Street, only to find it closed.
"Apparently I'm not the only one," one woman said, looking around at the others who gathered there before leaving.
Customers at the office didn't want to be identified, but shared their concerns with each other about missing work and potential wellness calls. The outage was affecting both internet and phone service for at least some of the customers.
The customers who came and went at the office were from all parts of the city — Court Street downtown, North Seventh Street, near Summit Street Church and the Chautauqua Park area.
The city and county courthouse use a different internet provider and were not affected.
The Southeast Communications Center said the outage did not seem to affect 911 calls, and that the center had workarounds for any service provided by Windstream that wasn't available.
Elsewhere in the county, commenters on social media reported outages in Wymore, Blue Springs and Barneston. The Wymore Public Library reported having trouble with its phones.
The Beatrice Humane Society was without internet and phones due to the outage, and posted on social media that without those, it could not finalize any adoptions. The posting then recommended making "lemonade out of internet lemons" by inviting those without internet to visit the society as a volunteer.
Windstream had a complaint filed against it in July by David Sankey, the director of the State 911 Department, after three 911 service outages in Nebraska between September 2023 and January 2024.
The complaint, filed with the Public Service Commission after it completed its investigation into Windstream's service outages, alleges that Windstream failed to comply with state and federal requirements governing the "operation, maintenance, reliability and functionality of 911 services."
In the September 2023 outage — the longest-lasting of the company's three 911 service outages — a third-party contractor installing a natural gas line at Windstream's data center in downtown Lincoln cut a city irrigation line, kicking off a chain of events that eventually led to 911 working either sporadically or not at all in Southeast Nebraska for several hours between Sept. 2 and 3.
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