A construction crew working on a bridge-and-overpass project in Cincinnati accidentally drilled into a major fiber cable on Tuesday, yanking internet service for customers across parts of the Tri-State. Residents and businesses in southeastern Indiana and some Cincinnati neighborhoods reported slow or no service as carriers scrambled to reroute traffic and technicians hustled to find the damage. Teams were sent out to splice the broken fibers and test connections before full service could be restored.
As reported by Local 12, Zayo Group said on its support site that crews working on the Cincinnati bridge project drilled into one of its fiber lines and that repairs could take one to three days. Local 12 also noted that Southeastern Indiana REMC Fiber said on social media that it and other regional providers were affected by the cut.
Why one cut can disrupt many providers
Zayo runs a dense long-haul and metro fiber network that many carriers and ISPs lease capacity from, so damage to a high-capacity route can ripple across multiple services. Lightwave describes Zayo’s footprint and its role in carrying wholesale wavelengths and connectivity between data centers. Under FCC rules, carriers must report significant outages and coordinate with emergency-service partners when communications impacting public safety are at risk. Those reporting requirements are detailed in a Part 4 document from the FCC.
What crews are doing and what to expect
Repair crews typically must locate the break, gain physical access (sometimes by excavation or from an aerial span), splice individual fibers, and run tests before traffic is fully restored, steps that can stretch over hours or days and help explain Zayo’s 1-3 day estimate. Southeastern Indiana REMC, which operates SEI Fiber in southeast Indiana, maintains an outage map and customer resources and says its teams are coordinating with upstream providers. Affected customers should check their ISP outage pages, try basic modem and router restarts, and contact providers about backup options such as mobile hotspots or alternate connections.
Small businesses that rely on card processors, remote workers, and students are among the most likely to feel the disruption until engineers finish splicing and testing. Local officials and providers typically post updates as work progresses, and restoration times can change with weather, access, and the number of fibers that need repair. We will update this story as providers post new information and crews make repairs.
