TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Several Midtown Tucson residents say a recent multi-day internet outage left them frustrated, disconnected and searching for answers as increasingly essential services rely on stable broadband connections.
For Garden District resident Jerry Kelly, the outage lasted four days and disrupted a service he said had otherwise been reliable since he signed up for Quantum Fiber about a year and a half ago.
“It takes you like three requests to actually talk to somebody here,” Kelly said. “And then no one tells you why this happened.”
Internet access has become a critical utility for many households, supporting remote work, telehealth appointments, home security systems and internet-connected medical devices. According to the Federal Communications Commission, millions of Americans now rely on broadband service for daily communication, employment and access to essential services.
Kelly said the lack of information from customer service proved as frustrating as the outage itself.
“Every four hours they’d say it’s going to be back on,” Kelly said. “It’s gonna be back on tonight, it’s gonna be back on in the morning. And finally it kept creeping up and they said it’s gonna be this morning.”
By Thursday morning, Kelly’s internet service had returned, though he said speeds remained slower than normal. He also said he never received a clear explanation for the outage.
“They say it could be storm related,” Kelly said. “We had no storms!”
Another Midtown resident, identified only as Liz, said she has experienced difficulties obtaining information from customer service in the past.
“Today, I wound up someplace overseas,” Liz said. “It was very difficult, I wasn’t getting any information.”
Although Liz was not affected by this week’s outage, she said prolonged internet disruptions could have serious consequences because some of her essential services depend on connectivity.
“My phone is a VOIP phone — Voice Over Internet phone,” she said. “I have a heart monitor … there’s just one thing after another.”
Voice-over-Internet-Protocol, or VOIP, phone systems use broadband connections instead of traditional telephone lines, making them vulnerable during internet outages unless backup systems are in place.
Kelly said the experience has caused him to reconsider his service despite the lower cost compared with competitors.
“If I could switch back right now I would,” he said.
In response to inquiries about the reported outage, Lumen Technologies said it was “not currently experiencing any internet disruption in the midtown Tucson area.” The company added that it recently divested a significant portion of its consumer fiber-to-the-home internet business to AT&T and suggested the disruption may have involved another provider.
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Eddie Celaya is a multimedia journalist at KGUN 9. Born in Tucson and raised in the Phoenix area, Eddie is a life-long Arizonan and graduate of the University of Arizona who loves the desert and mountains and hates the cold. Previously, Eddie worked in print media at the Arizona Daily Star. Share your story ideas with Eddie at edward.celaya@kgun9.com, or by connecting on Facebook or Instagram.
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