Comcast continues to make steady progress in rebuilding its network throughout Panama City that was virtually destroyed by Hurricane Michael. Hundreds of Comcast crews are deployed in Panama City and the surrounding areas, working on restoring services and building out the more than 650 miles of new cable plant that will become part of the Comcast network for this area.
This week’s focus area includes restoring services for customers in Lynn Haven and the west side of Panama City (in the area near FSU and Gulf Coast State College). Electricity has been restored and the necessary utility poles are in place there, allowing Comcast crews to safely attach lines and install equipment needed to run the network. Following the completion of restoration work in this area, Comcast crews will be restoring service in the Pretty Bayou area east of 390.
Comcast has already restored services for more than 80 percent of its customers impacted by Hurricane Michael. Restoration has been more difficult in hard-hit Panama City, where infrastructure has been severely damaged and certain areas have been either physically inaccessible or deemed unsafe to begin repairs.
Extensive restoration work continues daily throughout Panama City with hundreds of technicians wrecking out and removing old plant, placing state of the art fiber optic cable and new electronics to re-activate our network and restore Xfinity services for customers.
Comcast continues to stage its Xfinity WiFi hot spot van to provide free wireless internet service so residents and emergency personnel can stay connected. The internet service is available and free for both Xfinity customers and non-customers. The Xfinity WiFi van is located in the Lynn Haven Walmart Supercenter parking lot daily from 9am – 5pm until further notice.
To help customers recover from Hurricane Michael’s devastation, Comcast recently suspended billing for customers located in the hardest hit areas within its Florida Panhandle service area, including impacted areas of Panama City and Marianna. The service credit is retroactive to October 10, when Hurricane Michael made landfall. The company said it is continuing to assess network damage from the storm and may expand its service credits to help additional customers in the area.
When the new Comcast network in Panama City is complete, local customers will have access to Comcast’s innovative, ultra-fast high-performance internet and the most advanced Xfinity services for homes and businesses. This includes Gigabit internet speeds as Comcast is now the nation’s largest provider of gigabit speed internet service and its advanced network can deliver these speeds using the existing connections that are already in most customers’ homes.
