Post-Beryl internet outages plaguing small businesses, remote workers

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- Days after millions of people across southeast Texas had their power restored following Hurricane Beryl, there are still areas without internet and phone service. Viewers who reached out to ABC13 said it's impacting their ability to work from home or serve customers at their businesses.

Nina Fragale, general manager of Pipeline Grill in Baytown, said the restaurant's power was restored last Friday, but the Xfinity internet and landline services remained out.

As a result, the business couldn't answer calls from customers who want to know if they're back open, and they've had patrons walk out because they're unable to accept credit card payments.

"It's gut-wrenching. We're a small business, and we rely solely on day-to-day sales to make our money," Fragale said. "We've had a lot of customers leave. On day one, we had 35 tables walk out. On day two, we had 47 tables walk out. On day three, we hit up to 58 tables that walked out. It'll probably take us three to four months to recover from that."

Sharon Mayes lives in southeast Houston and is in a similar situation. Her power returned last Friday, but her AT&T internet connection is still down. She told ABC13 it's impacting her job since she works from home.

"I work remotely for a marketing agency, and I have many client meetings during the week. It's hindered my ability to communicate with them and get my tasks done. I've been having to work off different hotspots, which has been spotty. It's been so frustrating," Mayes said.

ABC13 brought Fragale and Mayes' concerns to their service providers after they said they could not get answers about what is causing the ongoing outages and when they will be back online.

A spokesperson for Comcast, which owns Xfinity, explained that its network is dependent on different fiber nodes that are spread throughout the city and powered through electricity. If one of those nodes is still offline due to a power outage, it can impact the internet and landline service for those who rely on the fiber lines connected to it.

Damaged fiber lines, typically prioritized after a severe storm, may also be causing Comcast/Xfinity's ongoing outages. However, repairs may be delayed if trees or debris still block the line or if CenterPoint needs to work on its utility pole first.

Comcast expects full restoration to its customers by the end of Friday, with the exception of those whose networks still have extensive damage.

In a statement to ABC13, an AT&T representative wrote, "Some customers may still be experiencing home phone and internet service disruptions due to remaining power outages and storm damage to our utility poles and cables. (...) In most cases, we're not able to begin repairs to damaged aerial equipment until commercial power repairs are completed."

AT&T said it has restored service to 96 percent of customers where they know service was affected. It is unclear when they expect all impacted neighborhoods to be back online.

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