A cable cut just north of Whakamārama is being touted as the cause of an internet outage in the Western Bay of Plenty.

In a statement to SunLive, a Chorus spokesperson said a cable was accidentally cut by roadwork contractors drilling new ducts just north of Whakamārama on Wednesday morning.

“This impacted 1015 copper service customers and 389 fibre customers, most of whom are situated in Waihī, Ōmokoroa, Katikati and Whakamārama.

“Chorus technicians were onsite and found the damage by about 11am.”

The outage was categorised as a Priority 1 event, meaning it had been escalated for fastest restoration by field teams, Chorus said.

“They excavated at the damage site and carried out a 200m overlay.

“By 4pm, major copper and fibre service lines were restored to the areas, with full services restored at around 9pm.

“Chorus sincerely apologises to affected customers for the inconvenience caused by the outage.”