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(CNN) – The explosion of an RV parked near a broadcast building in Nashville disrupted AT & T’s service in the region and caused a brief ground stop at the city’s main airport, authorities said.
Flights at Nashville International Airport resumed after about an hour, but connectivity problems persisted in Tennessee and other parts of the region Friday night. Some localities reported outages with 911 systems.
AT&T confirmed that one of its network centers was damaged by the Christmas blast.
“We are continuing to work to restore service for customers in Nashville and the surrounding areas that were affected by this morning’s explosion,” AT&T spokesman Jim Greer said as night fell in Nashville.
“We have mobilized additional resources, including our national disaster recovery team, and are adding multiple mobile sites to assist in recovery efforts,” added Greer.
T-Mobile said it was experiencing some service issues due to the blast, but was working “diligently with our partners” on the restoration.
According to a tweet from CTO Neville Ray, the operator was seeing service issues in Tennessee’s Nashville and Knoxville areas, parts of Louisville, Kentucky, and Birmingham, Alabama, and in metro Atlanta areas.
Earlier in the day, AT&T confirmed that the company was “in contact with law enforcement and working as quickly and safely as possible to restore service.”
When a network hub goes down, usually by a hurricane or other natural disaster, some of the Internet traffic can be diverted, but not all.
That’s why customers in Nashville and other parts of Tennessee reported losing cell phone service and other connections.
Grid hubs rely on commercial power with battery and generator backup. Damage to the facility may have impacted these systems and caused service to degrade later in the day on Friday.
“Power is essential to restore wired and wireless communications and we are working with law enforcement to access our equipment and make necessary repairs,” AT&T said Friday night.
AT&T is deploying portable cell towers in Nashville to support law enforcement and improve wireless service. CNN’s parent company, WarnerMedia, is owned by AT&T.
The disruption at the center of the downtown network had cascading effects at the airport and elsewhere.
Nashville International Airport said telecommunications problems associated with the blast caused the Federal Aviation Administration to briefly halt flights from Nashville.
The FAA said the ground cap was lifted after about an hour. “The pilots never lost contact with air traffic control,” the agency said in a statement.
The FAA website shows that the ground stop was issued due to an EDZ frequency outage.
ZME is an FAA air traffic control facility in Memphis that is responsible for controlling aircraft in the area at higher altitudes.
Flight service at Nashville International Airport “continues to be affected by telecommunications problems,” said a tweet from the airport around 3:30 pm CT.
On Friday night, the airport said in a tweet that “most flights are resuming, but there may be some delays.”
This story was first published on CNN.com “Nashville explosion causes AT&T outages and disrupts flight.”
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