MONTPELIER, Vt.—Problems with a major computer data network caused widespread Internet problems in Vermont on Tuesday, apparently triggered by a break in a fiber optic line and other technical problems, officials said.
The state of Vermont’s computer network went down for about 90 minutes late Tuesday morning, until engineers rerouted the data around the affected line, said Tom Murray, commissioner of the state Department of Information and Innovation, which handles information technology for the state.
“We were down for a little while. All things considered, it wasn’t that bad,” Murray said.
The problems were traced to a connection provided by Level 3 Communications, a Broomfield, Colo.-based Internet service provider. Level 3 spokeswoman Kimberly Tulp said she did not know what caused the outages or how many customers were affected.
“Level 3 did have an outage affecting customers in Vermont,” Tulp said. “We have addressed the issue and (service) is coming back.”
Tulp said the problem seemed to be localized in Vermont.
Patrick Muldoon, of the Independent Network Operations Consortium in Albany, N.Y., said Tuesday that organization had been having problems since Sunday with its connection to Level 3 Communications’ network.
The consortium manages data networks for 10 small phone companies in upstate New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. It has been operating at about half the capacity it normally does.
“Something broke somewhere, but we haven’t been able to get a straight answer,” Muldoon said.
Stephen Wark, a spokesman for the Vermont Department of Public Service, said a fiber optic line was cut in and there were other technical issues.
“It seems there are two issues: a fiber cut in Albany, New York, and the second is an undescribed data problem in the South Burlington area.”
Waitsfield and Champlain Valley Telecom lost one of the two fiber optic systems that carries its Internet traffic into and out of the state, said Vice President of Marketing Kurt Gruendling. He said the company’s engineers rerouted their service through the unaffected line.
