Fastwyre Outage Persists 4 Days After Miner Severed Nome Fiber Cable

1 articles · Updated · The Nome Nugget · Jun 20

Fastwyre phone and internet service in Nome remained down Friday evening, four days after a fiber optic cable was cut alongside a power line near Swanberg Dredge.
Kenny Hughes, who began gold mining east of the dredge last week, said an excavator boom snagged overhead utility lines while moving beneath them, ripping down power and communications infrastructure.
Nome Joint Utilities restored electricity soon after the fault on city feeder #1, but Fastwyre technicians were still in Nome working on the unrepaired fiber line attached to power poles.
Southern Nome and customers along Council, Beam and Kougarok roads to Banner Creek were affected, and the cut also knocked Nome weather reporting offline because the station needs the fiber link.
The damaged line connects onshore to Quintillion's network, with Fastwyre responsible for operation and maintenance after the cable comes ashore east of Beam Road.