Comcast said Monday that it is continuing to suspend operations in the Houston area until local emergency management agencies deem it safe to be on the roads as the region continues to grapple with the destruction and flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey.
“Restoration crews remain on standby,” Comcast said, in a statement. “Once clearance is granted, Comcast's maintenance technicians will be dispatched to begin assessment and restoration efforts throughout the Greater Houston Area including Galveston, Liberty, Brazoria, Harris and Fort Bend Counties.”
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Comcast Houston’s Twitter handle noted that most service outages in the area are because of power outages:
Vast majority of our outages are due to power failures that affect our network. As power is restored our services typically are as well.
— Comcast Houston (@ComcastHouston) August 28, 2017
To help residents and emergency personnel stay connected, Comcast earlier this week opened access to more than 53,000 Xfinity WiFi hotspots in the Greater Houston area.
Comcast said it has extended open access to that WiFi network until September 8.
To gain access, Comcast high-speed internet customers need locate and select WiFi networks bearing the “xfinitywifi” SSID and then launch a browser.
Non-Comcast subs are advised to visit the “Not an XFINITY Internet Customer” section on the sign in page to get started. Those non-subs will need to renew their complimentary session every two hours, Comcast said.
