Charter Communications customers across Morgan Hill, Gilroy, San Martin and Hollister experienced widespread internet outages Aug. 21 as accidental damage to a fiber optic line caused a drop in Spectrum internet service for homes, businesses and government entities across the South Valley area.
Outages began at roughly 4am, the internet service provider confirmed in the afternoon.
“Services are impacted for Spectrum customers in the area due to third-party fiber damage related to construction activity,” Danielle Dunn, Charter’s Director of Communications for the Northwest region, wrote in a statement. “We are working with the providers to restore all services as soon as possible. We apologize for the disruption and appreciate our customers’ patience as repairs are made.”
The City of Morgan Hill posted on their website that although City Hall phone lines were down due to the outage, emergency calls continued to function during the lapse in internet service. The City of Gilroy confirmed as of 4:45pm that services had begun to be restored for Gilroy customers, with some areas of Morgan Hill coming back online at around the same time.
Charter declined to share the number of customers affected, citing competitive reasons. Reports of service outages appeared to be widespread across the three cities affected. Based on 2020 census data, the area is home to a combined approximately 150,000 people.
