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Story URL: http://networks.silicon.com/telecoms/0,39024659,11036187,00.htm

Construction worker wipes out Silicon Valley web access
'Boss, can I have a word... do you know what this cable was for?'

By Will Sturgeon

Published: Thursday 31 October 2002

Web users in the heart of Silicon Valley lost their internet access yesterday after a construction worker accidentally severed a fibre-optic cable.

UUNet customers in San Francisco and Santa Clara saw their web access interrupted - or at best slowed considerably - around 11:10(PST). The outage lasted for around an hour putting a severe dent in the affected companies' working day.

By noon, most customers regained service after UUNet routed traffic to other parts of its network, according to a representative from WorldCom, UUNet's parent company.

The cable was still being repaired early Wednesday afternoon. The representative didn't know how many customers were affected.

Ben Charny writes for News.com