Some CenturyLink fiber Internet customers in Seattle have been without a connection since Sunday afternoon.
Several Seattle residents took to Twitter throughout Sunday and into Monday morning, expressing their frustration with what appears to be an outage affecting those that pay for CenturyLink’s high-speed fiber service.
What's up with the @CenturyLink fiber outage in Seattle/Ballard? No internet since yesterday evening.
— John Herb (@jjherb) November 23, 2015
@jjherb Wish I knew, too. Can't get any information. Was on hold @CenturyLink for 45 mins yesterday then gave up.
— Urban Beer Hiker (@UrbanBeerHiker) November 23, 2015
Two weeks on Century Link and we're having our first outage.
— Dan Coulter (@danco) November 23, 2015
Well. Internet down in whole house. Steam is cancelled for now. Not thankful for that. But I am thankful for all of you. I'm sorry. :( <3
— DomesticDan (@DomesticDan) November 23, 2015
@CenturyLink what the hell is going on with fiber optic and prism in Seattle? Outtage in the middle of Hawks Game? ETA on fix? #fail
— Michael Buzzelle (@Buzzune) November 23, 2015
This map from downdetector.com shows the areas where users are reporting problems. Comments on downdetector.com also reveal several customers in North Seattle experiencing issues.
We reached out to CenturyLink for more details and a company spokesperson shared this statement:
“We are looking into the customer reports about disruptions to their Prism TV service. We will work to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience to our customers.”
In regard to its fiber Internet, the company spokesperson said that “we had a few small impacts to our fiber service over the weekend but those were restored. We are investigating to see if we can find any more disruptions. There is nothing widespread at this point.”
The company’s help line on Twitter hasn’t tweeted anything specifically about a fiber outage in Seattle, however it did note damage from the recent windstorm in eastern Washington in response to a customer question on Saturday.
@cybergrouch74 As I'm sure you know, the giant windstorm in Spokane caused a lot of damage. They had filed your repair ticket, then
— CenturyLinkHelp Team (@CenturyLinkHelp) November 23, 2015
CenturyLink rolled out its 1 gigabit fiber Internet service last year and now offers the high-speed Internet to more than 100,000 households across 22 neighborhoods in Seattle. The company began selling its Prism TV service, which runs on CenturyLink’s fiber network, in Seattle this past August.
In related news, the Seattle City Council last week voted against a $5 million municipal broadband pilot program, delivering a major blow to groups that want to see the Internet treated like a public utility akin to electricity.
[Editor’s Note: CenturyLink is a GeekWire annual sponsor]
