Internet outages, though relatively rare, still happen from time to time. As people become more and more dependent on the internet for their personal and professional lives, not having internet access can cause a number of issues.

In this article, we’re talking about the recent Suddenlink outages, how to check if you’re facing one and what you can do in the situation.

Also read: Why is my Cox modem blinking green?

Suddenlink outages explained

Suddenlink communications, known as Optimum since August 1, 2022, offers television, broadband internet and landline services in as many as 16 US states. While the service is usually working fine for most customers, there are several outages impacting a small subset of users.

These outages are usually caused by bad weather which may cause physical damage to the service provider’s network infrastructure or cables causing disruptions. During storms or bad weather, Optimum regional operational centres monitor the network to quickly spot outages and help direct teams to begin fixing any problems as soon as they’re detected.

How to check if you’re facing an outage?

At the time of writing, DownDetector reports no issues with the service. However, there have been reports of outages in the last 24 hours. In case you think you might be experiencing an outage, you can either try looking up DownDetector to see if there are issues with the service or you can use Optimum’s outage map to determine outages in a particular location.

This is an image of optimum outage map — *The Optimum outage map showing issues in the New York area.*

What can you do in an outage?

If you’re experiencing an outage, your diagnostic options as an end user are rather limited. However, the first step should be checking whether you’re experiencing a problem on your end or are caught in an outage.

You can check if your region is experiencing an outage using the aforementioned outage map. However, if that doesn’t clear the situation for you, you can always reach out to Optimum customer service or call them at 866-347-4784 to get a status update on the connectivity in your area.

Once you’ve established that the problem isn’t on our end and you’re facing an outage, the customer service agent will also give you an estimated time for service resumption.

Also read: Verizon outage: Everything you need to know