Cellular phone coverage has been interrupted throughout southeastern North Carolina.
A regional cell phone outage is affecting Columbus and Brunswick counties. Emergency officials said landlines and wifi calling are still functioning. The outage came after a fiber optic cable was damaged between Benson and Raleigh, according to Raleigh media reports. Areas of New Hanover, Harnett and Johnston counties are also affected.
911 service has been disrupted except for landline and registered wifi calling.
While Verizon service still malfunctioning in Columbus County, AT&T is down in Brunswick. The opposite is the case in Brunswick County, according to the Brunswick Sheriff’s Office. Service with other carriers has been inconsistent, based on a customer reports on social media.
Power was also out in much of Whiteville this morning. Duke Energy has not confirmed whether the outages were related. All Duke Energy customers in Whiteville were expected to be back on by 2 p.m.
Columbus County Emergency Services and N.C. Emergency Management did not immediately return requests for comment.
