Our hearts go out to everyone who has been affected by Hurricane Michael including thousands of our customers and employees. We know this can be a difficult time and we want to do everything we can to help. Our restoration crews have been fully deployed throughout the affected areas since shortly after the hurricane passed through to get services back up and running to our customers as quickly and safely as possible.
As observed earlier today by Senator Bill Nelson and Governor Rick Scott, we’ve been taking a number of special steps to aid our customers and their communities as everyone works to rebuild. Among our actions to date:
- Within hours of the storm, we proactively suspended billing for customers located in the hardest hit areas with the Comcast Panhandle service area, including the heavily impacted areas of Panama City and Marianna. The service credit is retroactive to October 10th, when Hurricane Michael made landfall;
- We suspended account fees, including late payment and missing equipment fees for all customers in these areas. We will also replace damaged or missing equipment for free. And we have made it possible for customers in the hardest hit communities to also suspend their services entirely;
- For Xfinity Mobile customers, we are providing three months courtesy credit on their outstanding balances to provide flexibility during the recovery period;
- We established a special website – stormready.xfinity.com – for customers who need assistance or have questions about their Xfinity services or equipment. Customers can fill out a simple online form and a team member will reach out to help. Customers can request for their services to be suspended, request credit for service outages, report down lines, order new equipment and more;
- We opened more than 8,000 of Comcast’s network of Xfinity WiFi hotspots throughout the Florida Panhandle for anyone to use for free, including non-Xfinity customers;
- We deployed the Xfinity “WiFi on Wheels” van to provide free wireless internet service so residents and emergency personnel can stay connected. This vehicle can be moved from site to site in coordination with public response officials to provide immediate connectivity. The customized van is outfitted with six WiFi access points, which can provide wireless internet connectivity to approximately 3,000 users over a 500 square foot area;
- In addition, we have played a “community first” role in assisting other competitive carriers with their service restorations with the goal of getting first responders connected much more quickly. In the immediate aftermath of the storm, helping to stitch the market back together takes precedence.
We’re committed to restoring service for all of our customers as quickly as possible and have brought in additional staff and equipment from other Comcast regions to help. Our customers can rest assured that we’re taking care of all their billing and equipment concerns. We’re focused on supporting our customers and employees during this difficult time.
