Campus & community, Campus news

Off-campus network outages tied to severed Comcast cable

By Public Affairs

Update, 9:30 a.m., Wednesday, Nov. 2 : Comcast reports that fiber splicing was completed around 11 p.m. Tuesday evening. The cable company says they reverted to an underground repair, rather than the temporary aerial repair announced earlier. This repair is permanent; there should not be a need for additional scheduled outages.

Widespread computer problems at UC Berkeley off-campus sites, beginning about 11 a.m., Tuesday, Nov. 1, are reportedly tied to an incident in downtown Berkeley in which a Comcast fiber cable and surrounding conduits were inadvertently severed.

Comcast reports that a 96-strand fiber cable was accidentally cut by a contractor, working near Martin Luther King Way and Berkeley Way. As a result, many off-campus locations lost connectivity to the central campus network.

“We are hopeful that service will be restored by the beginning of business hours tomorrow, i.e. 0800 Wednesday, Nov. 2,” reports Information Systems and Technology.

For a list of affected locations, and updates as more information becomes available, check the IST service status website.