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Contractor-cut fiber on July 28 left parts of county offline for ~9 hours; Brightspeed says contractors are billed and subject to state review
Summary
Brightspeed told the board a July 28 outage was caused by a contractor cutting a fiber near its WAVES central office and lasted about nine hours; the company said it documents damage, bills responsible contractors for repairs and noted North Carolina’s underground damage review board can assess fines.
Brewer told the commissioners that a separate outage on July 28 was caused by an actual fiber cut carried out by a contractor near Brightspeed's WAVES North Carolina central office and that the event lasted approximately nine hours. He described the different causes between the July 5 equipment failure and the July 28 cut and said Brightspeed files internal damage claims and bills contractors when work is the contractor’s fault.
When commissioners asked whether excavators are fined, Brewer explained North Carolina’s underground damage review process can assess fines after reviewing whether locates and markings were done correctly. A Brightspeed operations speaker described field procedures: technicians document cuts with photos, file damage claims, bill at-cost fees (including technician hourly wages), and in many cases pursue reimbursement from the responsible contractor.
