Vandals cut buried cable, halt Internet service

OTTUMWA (AP) ? Internet access was cut to some residents in southeast Iowa after someone intentionally cut an underground cable.

The Ottumwa Courier said Mediacom customers began to report they couldn?t get online Saturday morning, prompting the company to search for a problem. Customers in Ottumwa, Knoxville, Eddyville and Fairfield lost Internet service.

Mediacom spokeswoman Phyllis Peters said technicians found a fiber optic cable was damaged between Knoxville and Indianola.

?The fiber was cut at 4:37 a.m., and cut pretty bad,? Peters said.

Peters said an individual or group dug underground to reach the cable, likely in the hope of finding copper wiring. Thieves commonly steal any copper they can get their hands on, and sell it for scrap.

?This vandalism was underground ... by someone digging,? Peters reported. ?In a way, the crew thinks, the vandals were ?digging for gold.? The hypothesis is that they were looking for copper wire.?

Fiber optic cable is made up of clear plastic and includes no copper.

Mediacom restored service by Saturday evening.

Peters said Mediacom has been putting redundancies into place in hopes of avoiding widespread losses of service in cases where power is lost or cables are cut.