Balky internet service prevented users on the East Coast from loading the software they use to learn and work on Tuesday morning. Google, Zoom, YouTube, and Slack were among the services affected, the Washington Post reports. The source of the problem was unclear, but clues pointed to Verizon, which said a fiber had been cut in Brooklyn; the company said its technicians were working on fixing it, per Engadget. A Verizon spokesperson later said the outages were not caused by the fiber problem. Verizon Fios internet customers reported they were having trouble, but other internet service providers were acting up, as well. Amazon Web Services reported it was "investigating connectivity issues with an internet provider, mainly affecting the East Coast of the United States, outside of the AWS Network."
The outages were mostly in an area from DC to Boston, per Axios. A network monitoring company said the outage began at 11:25am, with recovery starting at 12:37pm. Verizon's traffic fell 12%, per ABC. Comcast Xfinity service apparently was struck as well, and Facebook, Gmail, and Twitter have been affected. Pokemon Go also was a casualty, per WRAL. Slack said the problem wasn't on its end. A Massachusetts middle school was able to tweet: "Widespread internet outages in the area impacting remote learning today. Stay patient and do best you can." (Severed fiber lines were a problem for Comcast before.)
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