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Tuesday, February 28th, 2023 2:47 PM

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No Xfinity service if no power? Why?

In Michigan this past week, many people were/are without power due to the ice storm.  I was one of them, but I have a generator, so that was not a big issue.  But I was without Xfinity service despite having whole house electric.  I know there was no physical line damage, because power was restored for 2 minutes midway through the outage, and Xfinity service was suddenly available for that time.

This has been a problem only the last few years.  When I originally installed my generator, Xfinity service would continue to be available.  Not anymore!  Why would my service be linked to power availability when it wasn't in the past?  I suspect the answer is related to non-functional and un-maintained backup hardware.

Xfinity charges us all a ridiculous amount of money and promises great internet speeds.  This promise leads us to believe we can work from home, which I do.  But the speed is useless without reliability.  I understand that weather creates problems (at an increasing rate).  It doesn't change the frustration of being forced to take PTO due to a lack of internet (this time is very valuable to me!).

Xfinity, can you put some of that revenue into reliability in lieu of more speed?  Internet is quickly becoming a required resource just like water and electricity.

Gold Problem Solver

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8K Messages

2 years ago

Cable systems need power for amplifiers and other electronic equipment. Although many may have some form of backup power, it's only designed for short-term outages of maybe a few hours. This is not like the old phone system where the lines were powered at the office.

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@andyross​ thanks for responding.  Your answer makes sense, and it is how I understood it too.  However, we definitely did have service for periods much longer than a few hours in the past.  Unfortunately, service is now immediately lost with a power outage.  We lose power often, so my experience is sadly significant.

Back to my suggestion that Xfinity invest in reliability (should say availability) would seem to mean that their non-functional backup systems be fixed or replaced.

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