Comcast Xfinity suffering from widespread outage

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Comcast’s Xfinity platform is experiencing outages across the country starting Nov. 8, 2021, leaving many subscribers unable to access the Internet, watch TV or use their linked phone service.

Comcast is the owner of NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC, though NBCU and the network do not have any involvement in the day to day or technical operations of the cable TV, Internet or phone services.

NBCU content is, however, widely distributed through the infrastructure that appears to causing issues — everything ranging from local NBC and Telemundo stations to networks such as E!, Bravo and regional NBC Sports networks and the various digital properties and streaming services the company offers.

It does not appear that any NBC owned websites or streaming platforms are directly affected by the outage, but affected customers typically cannot access them since they require a stable Internet connection.

Initial reports showed outages in the Philadelphia, New Jersey, South Carolina and Chicago markets. That was later expanded by Comcast to include Washington state, Minnesota, New York, Georgia, Florida and the District of Columbia.

Outages were first reported late in the evening of Nov. 8 on the west coast, with increasing issues popping up throughout the country Nov. 9, 2021.

Customers are also reporting that they can’t get through to Comcast’s published technical support numbers, though Comcast appears to be responding to messages on Twitter.

Comcast is currently say a resolution will be reached by 10:49 a.m. eastern according to its status page which, ironically, many subscribers can’t access.

Some customers in the affected areas, including this author, had only a brief outage earlier in the morning, with full service restored shortly after. Some customers have reported that a simple modem power cycle seems to resolve the issue, though Comcast hasn’t confirmed that as an official fix

The change is reportedly affecting homes, business and schools who rely on the Comcast network. At least one police department said its non-emergency phone system is down, directing customers to dial 911 for both emergency and non-emergency needs, while school districts are reporting issues with taking attendance.

The outage is also likely having significant impact on remote workers, who rely heavily on Internet connections to access the resources they need and communicate with colleagues.

Comcast also provides digital telephone service to homes and businesses as well as a mobile phone service that leans on public Xfinity hotspots to help save customers from having to use cellular data.