Nearly 190,000 cable and wireline subscribers are without service in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, though all TV stations remained on-air as of Monday morning, the Federal Communications Commission reports.
According to the FCC, 189,487 cable and wireline subs in the 55 counties impacted by the storm had lost service as of Monday, up from a total of 148,565 on Sunday. The Commission says 19 non-mobile switching centers were out of commission Monday morning, while another 22 were operating on back-up power. Those figures marked a deterioration from Sunday’s report when 11 centers were offline and 21 were running on back-up power.
The FCC did not break out the figures by operator.
In a Monday statement, Comcast’s Houston office said it was “temporarily suspending operations until local law enforcement agencies deem road conditions safe.”
“Restoration crews remain on standby,” Comcast said in a statement. “Once clearance is granted, Comcast’s maintenance technicians will be dispatched to begin assessment and restoration efforts throughout the Greater Houston Area including Galveston, Liberty, Brazoria, Harris, and Fort Bend Counties.”
In the meantime, the operator says it has opened up its network of 53,000 Xfinity WiFi hotspots in the Greater Houston area to help locals stay in touch with loved ones. Both customers and non-customers can utilize the hotspots, Comcast said. The former can use their Xfinity Internet login information to connect, while non-customers can select the “Not an Xfinity Internet Customer” option on the sign in page.
Radio stations were also struggling, with nine out of service as of 11 a.m. Monday, the FCC notes. Those include TX – KKTX, KUNO, KPRC, KKWV, KAYK, KMKS, KZFM, KKBA, and KEYS.
TV stations, however, have been fairing a bit better, with no outages reported, the FCC says.
More on the state of mobile communications in the flooded areas can be found here.