Comcast landline phone outage hits Spokane

Comcast’s Xfinity phone service suffered a massive outage Wednesday, taking out landlines across the U.S., including in Spokane.

The outage began in the morning and by the afternoon, businesses were reporting interrupted service. California, Florida, states in the Pacific Northwest – including Washington – and parts of Connecticut, New Jersey and New York experienced the most severe disruptions, according to DownDetector.com.

In the Inland Northwest, roughly 300 customers on Spokane’s South Hill were reported to be without service. The outage also spurred Greater Spokane Emergency Management to urge Comcast customers to use cell phones in an emergency.

In the morning, the county organization tweeted: “We have been informed that there is a Comcast phone outage in Spokane County. You may not be able to reach 911 with your landline (VOIP) phone and should use your cell phone if you need to call 911.”

Comcast said service had mostly been restored by late Wednesday afternoon, but noted “customers may still be experiencing an issue with their voice serve.”

However, comments from customers posted on the DownDetector website indicated service issues remained.