Lengthy internet outage caused by aging equipment

EPHRATA — Grant County PUD employees restored internet service to all county customers early Thursday morning after an outage that in some cases lasted more than 24 hours.

Christine Pratt, PUD public information officer, said internet service providers began notifying the PUD about the outages Tuesday night, but it took a while to locate the source of the issue.

“(Utility district workers) discovered some equipment was being overwhelmed by data and they weren’t sure where it was coming from,” Pratt said.

The first interruptions in service were reported at about 9 p.m. Tuesday. Service was restored to all customers by 5:30 a.m. Thursday.

“It’s stabilized now and everybody is back on, and they have a plan in place that should prevent this from happening again,” she said.

Pratt said the outages affected customers from throughout the county and people getting internet service from different providers. The common condition was that they were connected to older parts of the network.

“Older but not obsolete (equipment),” Pratt said.

Whether or not customers experienced an outage also was tied to the type of service they had, she said.

“That was what distinguished who didn’t have service from those who did,” Pratt said. “Your (internet service provider) and the Grant PUD equipment that was serving your account.”

Pratt said no one working on the system repairs could remember a similar outage.

She said that utility district officials plan to change how they monitor the system and work with service providers to identify potential trouble spots. The goal is to keep the data flowing while working on a permanent fix.

Utility district commissioners approved a $3.7 million contract with Nokia of America in June to upgrade the fiber system. Some of the systems to be upgraded go back to the start of the project, said Terry McKenzie, senior manager of wholesale fiber, in an earlier interview. David Parkhurst, manager of network engineering, said in an earlier interview that the upgrades should take about two to three years.

Parkhurst said the upgrades will make the system faster and increase the amount of traffic it can handle.

Utility district officials have been focusing on expanding the fiber backbone, Pratt said, a project that’s been underway, off and on, since the early 2000s and is scheduled for completion in 2024. With the buildout completed, she said the PUD’s focus is shifting toward maintaining and upgrading the system.

“To be prepared for future growth, and just to stay reliable,” she said.

Cheryl Schweizer may be reached at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.

Clarification: Aug. 11, 2023 – “Lengthy internet outage prompts changes in fiber system upkeep” – Changes in maintenance have been planned as part of upgrades to the PUD’s system for some time. The headline of this article has been updated to be more clear regarding this issue.