Stray Bullet Knocks Out Internet! Thousands Left Offline in Texas?!
Thousands of Spectrum internet users in North Texas experienced a significant outage on Friday, leaving homes and businesses without service. The disruption, which affected nearly 25,000 customers according to outage-tracking website DownDetector, was traced back to an unusual cause: a stray bullet.
A Spectrum spokesperson confirmed that a fiber optic cable in the Dallas area was damaged by a stray bullet, triggering the widespread outage. The incident highlights the vulnerability of critical infrastructure to unexpected events.
Dallas Hardest Hit by Spectrum Outage
While the outage impacted several cities in North and Central Texas, Dallas bore the brunt of the disruption. Significant issues were also reported in Irving, Plano, Arlington, Austin, and San Antonio. Users began reporting issues around 1 p.m., with service nearly entirely restored by 4 p.m.
Spectrum Responds to the Incident
"Our teams acted quickly to repair the damage and restore service," a Spectrum spokesperson stated. "We apologize for the inconvenience this caused our customers." The company did not release exact numbers of affected users but acknowledged the significant impact of the outage.
This incident follows a recent telecommunications failure at DFW Airport and Love Field, where cutting fiber optic cables knocked out both the primary and backup data pathways for the FAA’s radars, radio frequencies, and computer systems in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. These events raise concerns about the security and resilience of telecommunications infrastructure in the region.
- Outage affected nearly 25,000 Spectrum users.
- A stray bullet damaged a fiber optic cable in Dallas.
- Service was largely restored within a few hours.