Update: AT&T announced at 4:48 p.m. Wednesday that service had been restored for Wilmington area wireline, U-Verse and mobility customers affected by the fiber cable cut.

In what businesses might see as the unkindest cut of all, a contractor accidentally severed fiber optic cable, causing an outage in Internet service for some businesses in the Wilmington area Tuesday and Wednesday, officials said.

"Due to a fiber cut caused by a contractor doing work for another entity, some customers in the Wilmington area may be experiencing issues with wireline, U-Verse and mobility services," AT&T spokesman Josh Gelinas said in an emailed statement Wednesday. "Technicians are onsite and will work as quickly as possible to complete repairs and restore service. We apologize for this inconvenience."

Affected businesses include Dedicated Internet Access customers of CloudWyze, which provides that service from AT&T. 

"We've seen outages all over town," CloudWyze CEO Shaun Olsen said Wednesday. "We're in Leland, and we are experiencing it here."

Olsen said it was his understanding that AT&T would have to replace about 200 feet of cable to repair the problem.

He said that CloudWyze is working to increase its number of providers so when accidents like this happen, the company will be able to supply high-level Internet service from other sources.