Spectrum customers across the country and in the Flathead Valley were affected by a widespread outage Friday afternoon.

Businesses trying to take care of people shopping on one of the last few days before Christmas were affected.

A Daily Inter Lake reporter inquiring at the Spectrum office in Kalispell was given a business card, but when the number was called, it was busy, so it wasn’t immediately known what caused the outage.

Spectrum’s website noted outages were reported from Los Angeles to New York City. Spectrum customers were affected throughout Montana and into Northern Idaho. Most of the reported problems dealt with internet service, 65 percent; TV, 19 percent; and total blackout, 15 percent.

According to Spectrum’s “down detector,” its problems peaked at about 1 p.m. with some decreases as the afternoon progressed. Flathead customers showed their displeasure with the outage, making comments on its website, asking when service would be restored.

Montana Sky customers were having better luck in the Flathead. One customer service representative said they received several phone calls, but explained it was a Spectrum issue.

Montana Sky operates several wireless towers in the valley and provides coverage from Big Mountain to West Glacier to south of Kalispell in Creston, Bigfork and Lakeside and east as far as Ashley Lake.

According to Spectrum’s “down detector,” the outage was still affecting service at 5:30 p.m.

Reporter Scott Shindledecker may be reached at 406-758-4441 or sshindledecker@dailyinterlake.com