Excavator severs fibre optic cable in Malaga, leaving 5,000 homes and businesses without internet

A worker operating an excavator machine at a construction site on Monday morning accidentally severed a fibre optic cable vital to telephone and data services throughout the Teatinos district in Malaga.

Telecommunications services have reported that more than 5,000 domestic and business customers have lost internet connection. This has led to vocal criticism on social media due to the economic and professional losses resulting from the incident.

The incident happened around 11am on Monday, when a small excavator accidentally ripped out the fibre optic cable, which serves several telephone companies, directly or indirectly. Although service began to be restored that same afternoon, on Tuesday morning some customers reported that they still lacked internet access in their homes and businesses.

The outage has had a significant impact because this network node is used by several operators. According to some customers, the operators include companies such as PTV, Yoigo, Vodafone and Digi, among others. Regarding the market leader, Movistar, there is some confusion: while company sources indicate they are unaware of the outage, several of their customers have confirmed that they are among the affected.

The companies' technical teams have been working tirelessly to restore service as soon as possible. It is a complex repair, because it requires replacing several complete sections of the fiber optic line, which has delayed the recovery of the signal for some customers.

Local operator PTV Telecom has offered customers free unlimited data on their mobile lines for the duration of the outage. According to a statement on social media, the company resolved the issue on its end around 3am, after 16 hours of continuous work.

Some of the shops, bars and businesses in the area have had to close due to the lack of internet access. In addition, people who work from home have also lost a day.

Javier, a resident of Teatinos, told SUR that he had seen several establishments with signs warning that card payments are not accepted due to the network failure. Meanwhile, another local resident, Antonio, confirmed that he had lost both Wi-Fi and mobile phone service.

Well-known political activist and journalist David Ingelmo is a PTV customer and is also among those affected because he works from home. "All we ask for is transparency. If it can't be fixed in a day, they should say so, no big deal. What you can't do is leave several neighborhoods like this, without informing them when the service will be restored," he said.

According to Ingelmo, "the city council is completely indifferent". "I'm not saying they have to fix it, but they should at least show some concern," he stated.