Vandalism was the cause of a 15-hour internet outage for Conneaut Telephone Co.’s Suite224.net Internet service Saturday, company manager Ken Johnson confirmed Sunday.

“Basically, from what I know of the situation, some goofball went up on the utility poles somewhere between Geneva and Cleveland and thought they would steal some copper wire,” Johnson said.
What the thief didn’t know is that the wire is simply fiber with no metal content at all, he said.
“Whoever it was cut the cable and took it, but it has no worth,” Johnson said. “This was a fruitless endeavor by a very dumb criminal.”
The fiber, which supplies Internet service through as many as 100 providers to 10,000 to 50,000 customers, took hours to replace and splice back together, he said.
Johnson said the problem was recognized at 6:45 a.m. and resolved at 9:45 p.m.
While the vandal won’t get any money for the cut cable, Johnson said the cost of replacement and labor likely cost FirstEnergy, which owns the line, $10,000 to $25,000.
“The whole issue was just very, very inconvenient,” he said.
Johnson said a second line of fiber will be run to Youngstown to shore up the weakness in infrastructure.
“Then incidents like this won’t be as effective,” he said, “because anyone who relied on the fiber route would have been inconvenienced, no matter who their provider is.”
Johnson said the existing line runs from Cleveland to Buffalo, N.Y.

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