Bright House Networks: Service is Restored After Outage
Software bug causes customers across the Tampa Bay region to lose phone, Internet and cable for much of Tuesday.
Note: Updated at 5:19 p.m.
Bright House Networks says it has completely restored all of its phone, high-speed Internet and cable service after a software bug caused an outage across the Tampa Bay region Tuesday.
The outage began around 10:40 a.m. Tuesday and caused an interruption in services across the area until about 5 p.m., the company said in a statement. The incident "had a cascading effect across areas of the market," Bright House spokesman Joe Durkin said.
Durkin did not have an answer for customers wondering if their bills would be discounted because of the lost service.
"We haven't even thought about that yet," Durkin said. "Our priority was restoring services."
Bright House engineers worked with vendors to identify and correct the problem, the company said. "They were able to locate the cause as a software bug that triggered the event to begin and expand in scope," Durkin said.
Service was reported down in much of the area, including Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Manatee counties. On Twitter, there were dozens of tweets Tuesday by customers reporting outages.
With more than a million Bright House customers across Tampa Bay, almost everyone was affected to some degree or another by the outage, Durkin said, but "not everyone lost everything."
The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office phone lines were down during the outage. Bright House's customer service and public relations phone lines were also down.
In Manatee County, several customers drove to the local Bright House Networks office to get updates because they could not reach anyone by phone.
How long were you without phone, cable or Internet on Tuesday? Are you still experiencing problems? Let us know in the comments below.
Keith
1:02 pm on Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Citrus county is having issues as well. Hernando especially.
Isnt it a bit early to be referring to tuesday afternoon in the past tense?
Sam
1:05 pm on Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Im a business class customer. Service is out in Tampa, As well as any customer support lines Upon calling I get ether a Busy Signal, or an out going message thats cryptic ("Out going routes not found"). I will add I have had pretty good/ reliable service for the last 10+ years. and as much as I would like to complain. (And won't)And thought I feeling pretty helpless right about now. It's truly a testament to how much we rely on the internet these days. -a happy bright house customer! :)
Sam
1:59 pm on Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Back online Central/West Tampa :)
Shawn Hicks
8:10 am on Wednesday, September 7, 2011
@Sam: I'm in the same boat. We have Verizon in our front yard and I keep tearing up their offers because Brighthouse has been the best cable/internet company I have ever dealt with. They aren't perfect, but they beat the pants off all the others. They consistently rank the highest in customer satisfaction on JD Powers ratings. (That may only mean they are best of a terrible lot, mind you, but they are still "best".)
Thomas
1:13 pm on Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Why is BH not posting on their Twitter or Facebook accounts?
Jason Bunch
1:16 pm on Tuesday, September 6, 2011
What...did it rain too hard this morning? Squirrel chew through a cable? Disgruntled employee take down the system? Here's a thought for Bright House...why don't you offer us the NFL Network as a sort of apology for your inexcusable service denial?
Liz
1:17 pm on Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Service is out in Clearwater, FL as well....Tried to call it in but the customer service numbers aren't working.
Jim Leonard
1:34 pm on Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Same issue. No one to contact. I did chat with a representative, but I think he was out of the country. Said there was an issue, but they had no way to know how long it would take :(
Ben Cook
1:21 pm on Tuesday, September 6, 2011
I like how the writer acts as though this problem happened last week Tuesday afternoon and the problem has been resolved. What terrible writing....
Phil Ryan
1:21 pm on Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Everything is back on in Pasco county as of 1 p.m.
Louise
1:48 pm on Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Cable out in Temple Terrace...no customer service contact available
B
1:50 pm on Tuesday, September 6, 2011
cable is back up....Bright House should at least give a recorded message instead of a busy signal. Not a good preview when indeed we have a BIG TIME state of emergency--lack of contigency is concerning.
Amy Michele Bailey
1:51 pm on Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Weeki Wachee area seems to be up and running, but with some glitches
Ty McKenzie
3:13 pm on Tuesday, September 6, 2011
****Pasco is not entirely solved. Parts may be, but our subdivision has internet, but no cable or phone.
Carol
3:17 pm on Tuesday, September 6, 2011
I think they should give the people who have been with them forever a break and lower the price! Carol
Carol
3:19 pm on Tuesday, September 6, 2011
We have no service at all
Russell
3:24 pm on Tuesday, September 6, 2011
I live in Pasco Near County line road. Have no service
Brian Tucker
3:37 pm on Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Brighthouse is a total joke,cable out all day,every possible customer service number is disconnected. Brighthouse Sucks!
Mara Sayed
3:38 pm on Tuesday, September 6, 2011
No cable service at all. 3:37 PM in South Tampa. Early morning I lost all service, phone, cable and Internet. I have Internet and phone working but no cable. I will demand an entire day of no service charges. I'm ready to switch to Fios or satellite. This is ridiculous. And you still can't get through the phone lines either. There is only a busy signal, all morning and all day. What kind of communications company is this if they can't even keep their own lines up??!! Get out of Bright House, people. Find an alternative. Hit them where it hurts.
Mary Ann Victoria
3:38 pm on Tuesday, September 6, 2011
I am in Pasco (Zephyrhills) We have internet and phone but no TV. I also am getting no customer service. Just a busy signal! They need to credit us for a day without !
Tony
4:02 pm on Tuesday, September 6, 2011
If you plug into the back of tv and bypass the box you will get basic cable back.
Mary Ann Victoria
4:08 pm on Tuesday, September 6, 2011
I have that Tony. I want full service! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Phone and internet was out this morning. They will credit our account!!!!!!!!!!!
George
4:15 pm on Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Service has been in and out all day... No internet and or phone and or cable. and then some channels but not all channels.... very frustrating... the prices we pay for service we deserve better or at least.... things happen but Brighthouse shoud offer their customers either a form of credit for lack of service.. of a few free movies - etc... if you went to a movie theater and the screen went down the movie theater would give free passes to the dissapointed customers. Brighthouse I am sure know who has been doen and should do something to settle up with their customers. If you didn't pay your bill then they were not receiving payment for services provided... But in this case Brighthouse did not provide the services we signed up for.
Mary Ann Victoria
4:24 pm on Tuesday, September 6, 2011
We now have all service running. I will be calling for a credit on my bill!
Mary Ann Victoria
4:25 pm on Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Customer service is still down. Just get a busy signal!
Chris Taylor
4:26 pm on Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Hey everyone. We are working to get the latest info from Brighthouse. We will also ask them many of the questions you've raised here. We'll update all the local Patch sites, including Westchase, with any specific info we can get for each area. Please keep telling each other what you're experiencing.
Phil Ryan
4:32 pm on Tuesday, September 6, 2011
We got full service back on at 1 p.m. this afternoon on SR 54 in Pasco County.... no further outages since. Hey, this happens sometimes... it's annoying, but it happens. It has happened with Verizon's phone service before, but now everything is bundled and this is the first time I've had everything go down.
Nate Williams
4:52 pm on Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Brighthouse is a third-world company delivering third-rate services at first world prices. Some regulatory body ought to fine them for their crappy service and utterly unreliable communication.
Brenda
8:01 pm on Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Have to say the problem was resolved rather quickly here in Zephyrhills. I had bundled services before with Verizon and my phone was not working more than it was. On top of that each time the phone would go out it took them 4 days to come out and fix it. Once they wouldn't even make an appointment to come fix it because (get this) I didn't have a number for them to reach me at once I left work at 4:00. Duh! If I had home phone service I wouldn't need them to come out and not everyone had a cell then. So over all, be glad they fixed the problem quickly and don't be so quick to change providers ;)
Georgina Paton
12:20 am on Wednesday, September 7, 2011
No service in Sun City Center. Can't get through on the phone either. Just used up a lot of minutes on my cell phone. Bay News 9 states all service has been restored. Not true!!! After reading that rebooted (just in case it worked--nothing so I just tried calling again and waited 20 minutes and gave up. That's not very good service and how can Bay News 9 not tell the truth???