Following the cutting of a fiber-optic line along State Route 260 Aug. 9, many Verde Valley residents lost phone and internet service.
According to CenturyLink Arizona media representative Karen Parry, the accident occurred in Camp Verde, in new road construction near Cherry Creek Road, when a “third party” individual or individuals severed one of CenturyLink’s lines. The resulting outage impacted CenturyLink’s 911 emergency response and internet services in and around Cottonwood and Camp Verde.
Areas as far away as Payson experienced problems. Though unconfirmed by Parry, residents in the Village of Oak Creek also reported problems.
At approximately 7:30 p.m. Aug. 9, Cottonwood Police Department issued a statement that the Cottonwood Communications Center had reported all 911 and administrative lines to the police were down.
“All 911 calls are still being taken but are rolling over to the Prescott Call Center,” CPD stated. “The situation is currently being addressed by the IT department in hopes of having the lines back up soon.”
Service was restored by 11:14 p.m., according to Parry. In the interim, 911 calls in the affected municipalities were rerouted. On Aug. 11, Parry said she had no further information about the incident.
“I do not know the third party that cut the fiber,” Parry said.
Arizona Department of Transportation did not confirm whether or not ADOT or ADOTcontracted crew were involved in the severing of the line. ADOT is engaged in new road construction along SR 260, part of its 18-month highway improvement project.
“We’re still looking into the circumstances of this incident,” an ADOT public information officer said.
