Internet, cable TV service returning following Comcast fiber cut

Editor's note: this story has been updated

Cable television and internet service in the Sarasota area was interrupted for Comcast Xfinity customers on Monday in an outage that appeared to be widespread, but service was returning by nightfall.

An outage map of Florida showed a wide swath of affected areas from around Naples along the western half of the peninsula into north central Florida.

By around 8 p.m., Mindy Kramer, vice president for public relations in the company's Central Florida region, said via email service was being restored.

She wrote: "This afternoon, we experienced a fiber cut that impacted our services in the Southwest Florida area.  Network and engineering teams were deployed to repair the lines and we are now starting to restore services and bring our impacted customers back on line.  We sincerely apologize to our customers for this inconvenience.''

Earlier in the afternoon on its website, the company posted this message: “We’re aware that you may be experiencing a service interruption and are working to resolve the issue. … We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience.”

A recorded line by Comcast Xfinity customer service referred to a network outage with no estimated time of repair.