A dump truck accident in Onondaga County was responsible for the Verizon phone and Internet outage across the north country Thursday and Friday.

John F. O’Malley, Verizon public relations manager for upstate New York, said a dump truck hit a couple of telephone poles in Cicero, knocking over the poles and cutting a fiber-optic cable.

Services were fully restored by 2:45 p.m. Friday, except for three sites in the Pulaski area.

Mr. O’Malley said there were close to 20 affected sites across the region.

“People were unable to receive or make any phone calls because the server was down,”said Jenny L. Camenga, a customer service representative for the Verizon Wireless zone in Lowville.

Another issue, Ms. Camenga said, was that phones constantly searched for a signal, which rapidly depleted cellphone batteries.

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