State government Web sites, networks are down

The entire New Mexico state government network of Web sites has been offline since Wednesday afternoon because a construction worker in accidentally cut a fiber optic cable.

All sites, including the state home page and sites for the governor’s office, secretary of state and the attorney general have been offline since then. Public information officers with several agencies confirmed for me the cause.

In addition to the Web sites, internal networks and Internet and e-mail have been affected in state government offices, and many employees are having difficulties working.

Workers are repairing the line as we speak. One state employee said the system may be back up by noon. Another said there was not yet a timetable.

Update, 11 p.m.

Alex Cuellar with the state’s general services division confirmed the information I reported earlier. He added that the line cut was a Qwest line and affected the Internet service provider Oso Grande, which provides the state’s Web access.

Cuellar said he’s hopeful the system will be back up around noon.

Update, 2:30 p.m.

The state’s Web sites are back up. You can visit the home page by clicking here.