MAKATI CITY, Philippines -- The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) said that major damage in its digital fiber optic network serving the Visayas and Mindanao regions has caused outage of the company’s Internet and mobile services.

Responding to a query, PLDT said that its fixed line and data services and the mobile services of Smart Communications, including the fixed wireless service Smart Bro was "temporarily disrupted" due to the digital fiber cable breaks.

"We have diverted voice and data traffic via an alternate route," PLDT said in a statement sent to INQUIRER.net. "Repair teams have already been dispatched to the affected areas, and we expect to restore normal service soon. We apologize for any inconvenience that this has caused our valued subscribers."

It was reported earlier that PLDT's DSL (digital subscriber line) service went down in Southern Mindanao mid-morning Wednesday.

Smart's cellular phone signal in the region has also become erratic, with some areas, including Davao City, left without service for nearly two hours.

PLDT did not explain what caused the damage in the digital fiber optic network.