4 bz0928verizon ARISTIDE
Deadre Anderson connects a customer so they can receive DSL internet connection while working in Verizon's Frame Room in 2011. (Photo by Aristide Economopoulos/The Star-Ledger)
New Jersey government offices had access to the internet restored early Friday afternoon after an outage by provider Verizon put them in the dark all morning.
"We're back up to full operations," said Christopher Santarelli, a spokesman for the N.J. Department of Treasury.
The department's Office of Information Technology expects to receive a report from Verizon about the cause of the outage within the next two weeks, which is standard procedure, he said.
"Verizon, the internet provider for the State, experienced a hardware malfunction that disabled internet access for all State computers and internet-dependent systems between approximately 5:00am-12:30pm Friday. The Office of Information Technology was in constant communication with Verizon regional executives through the duration of the outage, and expects a full cause analysis from Verizon soon," Santarelli said in a statement.
Verizon spokesman John Bonomo said late Friday, "The problem was rectified earlier today after we replaced a faulty network card in one of our central offices. We are looking into what the root cause is/was."
Residents who tried to conduct business online with the Motor Vehicle Commission were out of luck all morning, but those who went to the local agency were able to conduct their business - so long as they could pay with cash.
At the Rahway office, some people decided to return another day, but some of those who didn't have enough cash on hand simply left in search of a nearby ATM. If anything, lines appeared to be lighter than usual.
Jean Cadeau of Linden said he got his license and registration renewed in about 20 minutes. "I just happened to have the money on me," he said.
Adam Clark contributed to this report.
Kathleen O'Brien may be reached at kobrien@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @OBrienLedger. Find NJ.com on Facebook.