HONOLULU (KHON2) — A fiber line was deliberately cut in a remote, wooded area of Windward Oahu on Monday, knocking out internet and phone service for customers in Kāne‘ohe and parts of Kailua, according to Hawaiian Telcom.
Crews responded to the outage early Monday morning and worked throughout the day to assess the damage and begin repairs. By late afternoon, the company reported ‘significant progress’ and said service for most residential and business customers had been restored by 6 p.m. Repairs for the remaining affected customers are expected to wrap up by 10 p.m.
Hawaiian Telcom confirmed that the fiber cut was an act of vandalism. A spokesperson said an investigation would follow once full service had been restored and customers’ needs were addressed.
This marked the second communications outage in Windward Oahu in recent weeks. A previous incident affected cellular service.
On Monday, Verizon also reported service issues tied to a third-party vendor’s fiber line and said its engineers had been working to resolve the issue.
Jason Thune, Hawaiian Telcom’s vice president of fiber strategy and deployment, said crews had prioritized restoring service and were continuing to monitor the situation.
Hawaiian Telcom posted ongoing updates at hawaiiantel.com.