Surfing the Web became an impossibility at times this week for some customers of Comcast’s high-speed Internet service in Denver and around the nation.
The cable giant confirmed the outages Thursday and said it is doing “everything in our power’ to correct the problem, which is occurring in early evenings, when home Internet use peaks.
The service has been down or spotty for three to five hours for the past several evenings, the company has said.
Comcast’s high-speed service was running locally early Thursday evening, Comcast spokeswoman Cindy Parsons said.
Comcast is the nation’s largest cable-television company, with 6.5 million high-speed data and 21.5 million television subscribers in 35 states and the District of Columbia. High-speed Internet service packages range from $42.95 to $52.95 a month.
Some local subscribers called the cable giant to complain about their inability to access the Internet and send e-mail. They reported encountering long hold times to speak to customer-service representatives.
“It was out all last night (Wednesday), as well as Monday night. It was out cold,’ said a frustrated Matt Kaune, a Denver computer programmer. “I’ve called a couple of times but couldn’t get through; the lines were busy. I assumed they were getting swamped.’
Other customers reported continually getting disconnected from the Internet. This was especially troubling for Barry Townsend of Longmont, who’s taking an online college course and relies on the Internet to send and receive assignments and notes on a daily basis.
“It’s just sad. I wasn’t able to work the last three nights,’ he said. “I’m a little worried because I have to finish an assignment. Hopefully, I can get online tonight.’
Comcast officials released a statement Thursday acknowledging “intermittent problems.’
“These problems have been confined to evening hours. We have been spending a lot of time upgrading our network, with new speeds and a host of new features. In the process, we encountered some intermittent issues with our DNS (domain name server) system,’ the statement read. “We regret any inconvenience this may have caused our customers.’
The DNS system, which routes Web-page requests, converts easy-to-remember domain names into numeric addresses used by the World Wide Web.
Comcast said recent improvements to its system include faster download speeds of up to 4 megabits a second. A non-DSL, dial-up modem downloads data at a far-slower 56 kilobits per second.
The company would not say how, or whether, it plans to reimburse customers for their loss of service.
Townsend said his account was credited for three days of dropped service.
“The best thing is that they do not hesitate on giving you credit if you ask for it,’ he said.
Townsend and others said they are considering switching to DSL service, or high-speed Internet connections over their telephone line.
“I think it’s going to amount to a mass exodus,’ Kaune said.
While Stephen Patterson of Denver said he’s frustrated with Comcast after a customer-service representative advised him to purchase a newer e-mail program to solve his connection problems, he doesn’t know whether he’ll switch because he enjoys the high speeds.
Staff writer Kimberly S. Johnson can be reached at 303-820-1088 or kjohnson@denverpost.com.
