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PG&E pole accident knocks out Comcast's internet, TV, phone service in Mountain View
The Moorpark Avenue area of Mountain View near State Route 85, showing the approximate origination point of a large internet outage aerial view.Damage to a power pole cut several Comcast lines in Mountain View, knocking out Internet, cable television and phone service to thousands of residents in the Silicon Valley city on Sunday and Monday.
PUBLISHED: December 10, 2018 at 3:53 pm | UPDATED: December 11, 2018 at 4:01 am
MOUNTAIN VIEW — Damage to a power pole cut several Comcast lines in Mountain View, knocking out internet, cable television and phone service to thousands of residents Sunday and Monday.
"It's pretty much a problem throughout Mountain View," said Joan Hammel, a Comcast spokeswoman.
An estimated 12,000 residential customers and 1,200 business customers of Comcast were without service in Mountain View, according to Hammel.
"Video and phone service are also affected," added Adriana Arvizo, a Comcast spokeswoman.
The power pole was damaged early Sunday. A vehicle crashed into a power pole at 655 Moorpark Way in Mountain View just before 1 a.m., according to PG&E spokeswoman Mayra Tostado. That caused an electricity outage, the utility said.
"The third-party incident toppled the pole and caused several spans of wire to come down and damaged other electric equipment in the immediate vicinity," Tostado said.
PG&E crews worked with first responders to make the area safe, and the San Francisco-based utility summoned additional resources to assess damage to its equipment and begin repairs.
Power was restored to 50 affected electricity customers by 6:07 a.m. Monday.
Six Comcast lines were severed in the accident, said Shonda Ranson, a spokeswoman for the city of Mountain View.
"After it was damaged, the pole had to be reinstated," Hammel said. "We needed the electric utility to complete its repairs."
Comcast service was out through Monday, according to company officials.
The outage also knocked out service in the key downtown Mountain View area, including at City Hall.
Comcast declined to say which business customers were out of service. Mountain View is headquarters to internet search giant Google and its owner, tech titan Alphabet.
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