Comcast suffered an outage on Thursday morning in Seattle that left many customers without an Internet connection.
As first noted by The Capitol Hill Seattle blog, residential and business customers began noticing issues around 9 a.m. Comcast spokesman Steve Kipp confirmed that at 8:45 a.m., “a construction crew not affiliated with Comcast damaged a fiber optic line which primarily feeds the Madison Park neighborhood.”
“We have technicians on the scene, working to repair the damage and restore service,” Kipp said. “We have no estimated time for when service will be restored nor do I have an estimate on the number of customers impacted.”
Clearly, the outage is causing problems for many in Seattle today:
Three coffee shops later and finally I've found internet in the midst of @comcast's neighborhood-wide outage in Seattle.
— Nick Cannata-Bowman (@NickNorthwest) April 9, 2015
Yet ANOTHER @comcast outage in #seattle . I work from home and your service never works!! Not ok
— Val_White (@Val_White) April 9, 2015
Comcast outage in Seattle. City basically shutting down.
— Cody (@JoMasta) April 9, 2015
Others, however, are taking it in stride:
Taking full advantage of the @comcast outage and drinking coffee/working outside on this beautiful day. Stop complaining, Seattle.
— Sarah Gurbach (@thegurbs) April 9, 2015
Some, like The Stranger, say Comcast’s problems today are another reason for Seattle to have its own publicly-funded Internet system. That’s something Mayor Ed Murray and his IT staff are currently discussing, as it also considers teaming up with private companies who are interested in using the city’s dark fiber.
In 2013, the city tried to partner with Cincinnati-based Gigabit Squared, which said it would bring gigabit Internet to thousands of Seattle residents. But that grand vision crumbled after Gigabit failed to raise enough money to implement a high-speed Internet network in 14 Seattle neighborhoods using the city’s dormant dark fiber network. The end result was Gigabit being sued by the City of Seattle for an unpaid bill.
Meanwhile, CenturyLink continues to expand its gigabit internet offering in Seattle.
