Brief Comcast internet outage reported across US
07 Nov 2017
Net users in the US experienced some internet downtime yesterday in a brief outage, after which, service was restored.
A configuration issue from Level 3 was the cause behind the outage. Level 3 is a telecommunications and internet service provider owned by CenturyLink. In a statement to CNN Tech, CenturyLink said a "configuration error" disrupted service which was restored by technicians in 90 minutes.
CenturyLink (CTL) declined to offer further details.
Though Level 3 was responsible for the issue, it hit other internet providers like Comcast because Level 3's infrastructure delivers content for other internet services.
According to Comcast (CCV), the service disruption to its Xfinity internet service has been resolved.
Reports from Down Detector, a website that monitors internet outages, said Comcast and Level 3 connectivity was impacted nationwide starting around 10 am Pacific.
There was a spike in internet connectivity at other internet service providers including Spectrum, Verizon, and AT&T though they were not as widespread. It is not clear if the spikes were related to the Level 3 outage.
After public complaints of widespread outages, rumours temporarily circulated online that the outage stemmed from a coordinated hack of some sort. However, CenturyLink confirmed, it was due to a misconfiguration.
According to the website Down Detector, Comcast was down on the East and West Coasts and a large swathe from the Atlantic seaboard to the Mid-West. Comcast's customer service tweeted at 1:36 pm: "Some customers are having issues with their XFINITY Internet service. We apologize & appreciate your patience while we work to fix."
Level 3, a recent CenturyLink acquisition, is one of the tier one internet service providers (ISP).
