Montana Sky part of massive internet outage

Extensive damage to a main-line fiber-optic cable in St. Paul, Minnesota, Wednesday evening is responsible for an internet outage that is affecting Montana Sky Networks users. Crews are repairing the cable but service remained down Thursday morning.

Montana Sky’s Facebook page stated the company is “extremely apologetic that this outage is beyond our control.”

According to Montana Sky’s upstream provider, the large cable running along a railroad track was extensively damaged, essentially stopping all internet traffic for potentially hundreds of thousands of customers for many communication providers across the region.

The damaged cable is located near a hobo camp in St. Paul, which prompted railroad and law enforcement personnel to deny access and protection to the fiber repair crew until daylight because of potential danger from transients, Montana Sky’s Facebook post noted.

“We were told police would provide assistance starting at 8 a.m. [Thursday] so the repair crews can get in and [make] repairs to restore service.”

Montana Sky said it would update customers on its Facebook page.