Thousands of Mid-Maine Communications customers were without Internet service Monday after a cable in the Augusta area was damaged.

The problem affected most of Mid-Maine’s customers from the Bangor area to Lewiston and Auburn beginning early in the afternoon.

At about 5 p.m. Monday, a Mid-Maine technician said the problem was being repaired and that Internet service should be restored soon after.

A Mid-Maine employee said there was break in a fiber-optic line at a construction site.

Mid-Maine Communications was formed in 1994.

It initially provided local telephone service to 26 residential communities surrounding Bangor.

In 1997, Mid-Maine started a dial-up Internet business and has since become one of the largest Internet service providers in the state.

In 1999, Mid-Maine built a fiber optic network from Ellsworth to Portland. A year later, it began offering local telephone and high-speed Internet services to businesses customers in most markets along the I-95 corridor in Maine.