Telephone customers across the southeast region noticed disruptions in their telephone and Internet services Monday afternoon.

According to Patricia Cameron, a spokesperson with CenturyTel, a fiber optic cable was the culprit.

&uot;What we’ve discovered as of now is that a fiber cable was cut in Vicksburg, Miss. during the day Monday,&uot; Cameron said. &uot;The cut is affecting 78 carriers, including CenturyTel in states throughout the southeast. It is affecting CenturyTel customers in Alabama and Louisiana.&uot;

Because of the cut, services were interrupted in varying degrees throughout the day.

&uot;It is affecting long distance services in varying degrees, and some Internet and DSL customers are experiencing difficulties,&uot; Cameron said.

&uot;Some people may have long distance service, but no internet. Others may have Internet and no long distance. There is no one problem associated with the cut.&uot;

Cameron added that some customers on the CenturyTel Internet connection may also be experiencing some degree of difficulty – but it appears to be isolated to the CenturyTel home page.

&uot;If a person with CenturyTel internet is having trouble, it appears to be isolated to the centurytel.net home page,&uot; Cameron said. &uot;But, if the customer types in another web address, they are generally able to move elsewhere on the Internet.&uot;

Cameron said crews from CenturyTel, as well as other carriers, were busily working on the problem, and hoped to have all problems resolved by late Monday night or early Tuesday morning.

&uot;Our crews are out and working on the problem, and we hope to have it corrected as soon as possible,&uot; she said.

Camellia Communications reported that their service area did not have any reported outages.

The Greenville Advocate’s Internet’s service was out on Monday due to the problem on Centurytel’s lines.

Anything submitted electronically on Monday afternoon should be re-submitted as a precaution.