South Coast Verizon Wireless customers were without cell phone reception or several hours on the night of 8/9, due to a problem with a fiber-optic cable in the San Jose area. According to Heidi Flato, spokesperson for Verizon, this type of service interruption is extremely rare. The outage was widespread, Flato said, and would have affected Verizon Wireless customers living or traveling in the area between Santa Maria and Santa Barbara.
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