Comcast cable - no backup power

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philb2

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Earlier today my city had a big blackout. Probably, it was caused by the strong rains and strong winds here in my part of CA.

Because of earlier blackouts my cable modem and router are both protected by a UPS. he USP worked, so these devices were on. But the cable modem was clearly not receiving any signal. No Internet, no VoIP. That's why I love Comcast so much.
 
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I have a UPS on my ONT and one on my gateway, switch, and router. In theory my fiber line should be active even if the power goes out. I am not sure how Comcast works with power outages but here it is: Obligatory comcast sucks...
 
philb2 said:
Earlier today my city had a big blackout. Probably, it was caused by the strong rains and strong winds here in my part of CA.

Because of earlier blackouts my cable modem and router are both protected by a UPS. he USP worked, so these devices were on. But the cable modem was clearly not receiving any signal. No Internet, no VoIP. That's why I love Comcast so much.
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Replying to my own post is it worthwhile to try to get a refund from Comcast? Or am I tilting at windmills?
 
As soon as the headend loses power, of course you lose internet. Rural ones seem to last ~30 minutes, whereas ones in dense population I've seen run for 7-8 hours without dropping.
 
No chance of a refund imo unless you have a business account. Then maybe. How long was it out for that you want to be compensated?
 
Harvestor said:
Most isps dont put backup power to their nodes anymore as they prefer to keep power to cell towers for lifeline requirements
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I wish this was viable for things like checking PG&E status, etc. Everytime our power goes out, our data goes to complete shit. Unusable.
 
philb2 said:
Earlier today my city had a big blackout. Probably, it was caused by the strong rains and strong winds here in my part of CA.

Because of earlier blackouts my cable modem and router are both protected by a UPS. he USP worked, so these devices were on. But the cable modem was clearly not receiving any signal. No Internet, no VoIP. That's why I love Comcast so much.
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Not sure what Comcast does out here, cause they don't come all the way up my street. But CenturyLink doesn't do backup power to their DSL Remote Terminals, so utility power blinks, and the internet goes out and a good 50% of the time, the dsl modem needs a reboot too, cause that's how it rolls (I've got it scripted, at least). The cell towers have 2-4 hours of backup battery. And then it's time for broadcast TV and offline entertainment.
 
mnewxcv said:
No chance of a refund imo unless you have a business account. Then maybe. How long was it out for that you want to be compensated?
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Business account. Ha. Ha again. I'm just a consumer customer paying through two noses, just like all the other shlubs who subscribe to Comcast.

How would want to be compensated? If I take a broad view of all the bad things that Comcast has done to me over the years, something like 3-4 years of free services, including the most deluxe version of their cable TV service. And throw it some money so I can get some streaming channels for free.
 
There's no SLA on consumer service as far as I know.

Even assuming you were down 24 hours, and assuming your service is $125/month... that outage would afford you, at most, a $5 credit. You'd waste more opportunity cost in the time you'd waste pursuing it.
 
Eulogy said:
There's no SLA on consumer service as far as I know.

Even assuming you were down 24 hours, and assuming your service is $125/month... that outage would afford you, at most, a $5 credit. You'd waste more opportunity cost in the time you'd waste pursuing it.
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Of course you are 100% correct. I was just venting. I assume I'm among friends here.
 
techie81 said:
I wish this was viable for things like checking PG&E status, etc. Everytime our power goes out, our data goes to complete shit. Unusable.
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My data will slow down quite a bit but not unusable, i just chalk it up to the entire area using data and saturating the towers.
Im very lucky that the local isp’s Maintence tech is on the same node as me so im never down long after a power outage haha
 
Last time I had an outage that was out for 1 day, I called in to complain to comcast and they did give me a $25 credit to my bill.
 
I have my comcast modem (and my router) on a UPS and most of the time when power goes out, the internet stays on. It's a small UPS so its only good for about an hour, but the power is rarely off longer than that. By that time all the rest of my computers own UPS would have shut them down safely anyway.
Good enough for my security cameras to grab and save footage though, in case I need to record something involved with the power outage.

Not sure if this is another situation where my close proximity to necessary government buildings is a boon. We tend to get power restored pretty quickly at my house.
 
I thought ISP's that offered VOIP services were required to have backup power for emergency services like 911 and such.
 
Stugots said:
I thought ISP's that offered VOIP services were required to have backup power for emergency services like 911 and such.
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Yeah you would think. And who knows, maybe Stugots is right. But in this age of "self regulation" maybe Comcast is, dare I say it, lying.

Maybe I'm being unfair to Comcast. But like Eulogy I'm always good for a round of Comcast bashing. They richly deserve it.
 
I had to quit Comcast and rejoin to get the new customer pricing, even though I was a "loyal member" for years. The best they could do was worse internet and force me into their mobile plan for ~$60, or unlimited worse internet for ~$85.

Went from internet 200/20 maybe, and tv over their app for ~$150 to a new no-contract, 2 years for $30 internet only plan with their xfi gateway (no rental) for the unlimited data.

I still think it's insane that Comcast charges modem rentals, think how many people out there don't know...
 
rhkcommander959 said:
I had to quit Comcast and rejoin to get the new customer pricing, even though I was a "loyal member" for years. The best they could do was worse internet and force me into their mobile plan for ~$60, or unlimited worse internet for ~$85.

Went from internet 200/20 maybe, and tv over their app for ~$150 to a new no-contract, 2 years for $30 internet only plan with their xfi gateway (no rental) for the unlimited data.

I still think it's insane that Comcast charges modem rentals, think how many people out there don't know...
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same with the asshats up here BUT unless you own the modem they all charge for it.
 
pendragon1 said:
same with the asshats up here BUT unless you own the modem they all charge for it.
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Yep, the unlimited internet costs more but the xfi modem is "free", basically a rental with unlimited. Oh well, I kept my old modem just in case.

I just wish I could turn all the crap off in their gateway and use it like a modem. I can't interface with it directly, gotta use the new Xfinity App, but no, "not that one we got a new one!"
 
rhkcommander959 said:
Yep, the unlimited internet costs more but the xfi modem is "free", basically a rental with unlimited. Oh well, I kept my old modem just in case.

I just wish I could turn all the crap off in their gateway and use it like a modem. I can't interface with it directly, gotta use the new Xfinity App, but no, "not that one we got a new one!"
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those stupid app annoy me, i dont have a phone that can use them so i get the dumbed down interface
 
Same thing with Mediacom Cable. When the power goes out, the internet (their equipment) will continue to work for a few more hours and then go down also. I'd guess that's the limit of their backup power. Thankfully we have Starlink also at the moment. It's really handy being able to power Starlink via the generator and not be dependent on ANY local infrastructure whatsoever. Just a shame that Starlink is so damn slow now.
 
philb2 said:
Replying to my own post is it worthwhile to try to get a refund from Comcast? Or am I tilting at windmills?
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Typically, I will call in an outage and ask for compensation when they confirm they had an outage. And usually they'll offer up some token credit, and sometimes even a big one.
 
Starfalcon said:
Last time I had an outage that was out for 1 day, I called in to complain to comcast and they did give me a $25 credit to my bill.
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I'll be damned--I thought that was a huge credit, but that's what I got once too. Spectrum and wow will just prorate so it's usually less than $10, even on our Spectrum business line. Plus, spectrum requires at least 4hr outage for a credit.
 
TheSlySyl said:
I have my comcast modem (and my router) on a UPS and most of the time when power goes out, the internet stays on. It's a small UPS so its only good for about an hour, but the power is rarely off longer than that. By that time all the rest of my computers own UPS would have shut them down safely anyway.
Good enough for my security cameras to grab and save footage though, in case I need to record something involved with the power outage.

Not sure if this is another situation where my close proximity to necessary government buildings is a boon. We tend to get power restored pretty quickly at my house.
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I've got about 4hrs of ups for the Internet and have had comcast stay on until the last ups died.
 
Stugots said:
I thought ISP's that offered VOIP services were required to have backup power for emergency services like 911 and such.
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Nah, it's getting to the point it's every MF for themselves...(n) third world here we come!
 
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