Xfinity blames ‘network issue’ for massive internet outage in Chicago area and across several states

An Xfinity outage knocked out internet service to thousands in the Chicago area and across several states Tuesday morning.

The company said they had resolved a “network issue” that caused the outages, restoring service to impacted customers.

“Earlier, some customers experienced intermittent service disruptions as a result of a network issue,” the company said in a Tweet around 10:45 a.m. “We have addressed the issue and service is now restoring for impacted customers, as we continue to investigate the root cause. We apologize to those who were affected.”

People took to Twitter to post about the outages, which appeared to kick in around 7 a.m. as thousands of people prepared to start their work from home. By 8:30 a.m., many customers across the country reported their internet service had returned.

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More than 50,000 Comcast Xfinity Internet outages were reported in several states between the West and East coasts, according to the website Downdetector. Outages were reported in Milwaukee, Detroit, New York, New Jersey and Boston and other areas.

In a statement posted to Twitter, Xfinity said: “Some customers are experiencing intermittent service interruptions as a result of a network issue. Our teams are actively working to bring impacted customers back online, as we continue to investigate. We apologize to those who have been affected.”

The outage affected some city services in Chicago. Phones were offline at the 40th Ward offices and residents were being directed to reach out by email, according to Ald. Andre Vasquez’s office.

The 911 and 311 services in Chicago were unaffected, according to Mary May, spokeswoman for the Office of Emergency Management and Communications.

Late Monday, another wave of Comcast internet outages were reported in the San Francisco Bay area.

In 2018, two cut fiber optic lines were apparently responsible for a Comcast internet outage across the country. In 2016, Comcast reported another round of nationwide outages. Service was down for four hours then in Chicago and other cities across the county.