A widespread Metronet outage impacted internet services across the United States, including Iowa, in the early hours of Wednesday morning. The outage was caused by a software update to the network, according to a statement from Scott Shapiro, Metronet’s vice president of communications. “A software update to our network overnight caused an outage that affected some customers.
It was resolved at 7:15 a.m. this morning. We apologize for any service interruptions experienced by our customers,” Shapiro said. Metronet provides internet services to numerous Iowa communities, including Ames, Bettendorf, Cedar Falls, Davenport, Des Moines, Mason City, Sioux City, Urbandale, Waterloo, and West Des Moines.
Down Detector, a website that tracks user-submitted outage reports, showed dozens of Metronet reports in the Des Moines area starting around 2 a.m. and peaking after 5 a.m. The number of reports began to decline shortly after 6 a.m.
Metronet’s most recent Facebook post, which was originally intended to celebrate National Internet Day, was quickly filled with comments from customers seeking outage updates.
Metronet outage impacts US services
The outage also affected school districts and emergency services in central Iowa.
Metronet explained that in these cases, the outage was due to two damaged lines. Users had previously expressed frustration over the company’s silence regarding the issue, which now appears to have been a case of regularly scheduled maintenance. As part of the company’s efforts to inform their customers, Metronet began to post updates on X (formerly Twitter).
Many users reported being unable to access the internet as they were preparing for their workday, causing significant disruption. Some users from Lafayette, Michigan, Iowa, Florida, and Virginia confirmed they experienced outages around 3 a.m., coinciding with the scheduled software update. While many users reported that service was restored around 7 a.m., some areas, such as Florida, continued to experience outages for a bit longer.
A service update was issued for Rochester, stating that crews were working hard to resolve the issue.
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