CIBOLA COUNTY, N.M. – Multiple damaged fiber lines were responsible for a Verizon Wireless outage that disrupted cellphone service across parts of New Mexico last week, leaving some residents without their normal ability to make calls or use cellular data for several hours.
The Aug. 12 outage was reported in communities across central and western New Mexico, including Grants, Albuquerque, Los Lunas and McKinley County.
Verizon later attributed the disruption to damage involving multiple fiber lines.
“Multiple fiber cuts caused a service interruption for some wireless customers in the Albuquerque, New Mexico area earlier today,” Verizon said in a statement following the outage.
The company said engineers restored service by late afternoon.
“Engineers were able to resolve the issue and service was fully restored by 3:55 PM MT,” Verizon said. “We know how much people rely on Verizon and apologize for any inconvenience.”
Although Verizon described the affected area in its statement as the Albuquerque area, local emergency management officials confirmed the disruption extended into western New Mexico.
Cibola County Emergency Manager Dustin Middleton confirmed Verizon customers were experiencing the outage in Cibola County.
McKinley County Emergency Manager Adam Berry also confirmed Verizon service was down in McKinley County while other wireless providers, landlines and internet service appeared to be operating normally.
During the outage, Berry advised affected Verizon customers that they could use Wi-Fi calling while connected to an internet network. He said Wi-Fi calling could also be used to reach 911, while residents with access to a landline could use it to contact emergency services.
McKinley County issued a public notice shortly after noon Aug. 12 alerting residents that Verizon was experiencing outages across New Mexico and possibly in other states.
The outage was particularly noticeable because customers in several communities simultaneously lost service while competing cellular providers continued operating.
At approximately noon that day, Verizon's online automated assistant was still telling customers there were “no reported widespread service outages for Verizon in New Mexico,” despite the disruptions already being experienced across the state.
Service was ultimately restored less than four hours after McKinley County issued its public notice.