As internet and television use grows while consumers are home bound due to the coronavirus, one of the world's biggest cable companies is working to restore its services in storm-damaged parts of Chattanooga.
Comcast crews are working around the clock to restore services and, as of Friday, the cable TV giant had reconnected more than 93% of the thousands of Comcast customers whose cable or internet services were disrupted by the Easter night storms, company officials said Friday. A series of seven tornadoes April 12 and April 13 cut off power to more than one third of Chattanooga's home and businesses.
"Our crews have done extraordinary work, especially trying to practice social distancing during the COVID-19 crisis," said Jason Gumbs, regional senior vice president at Comcast in the South.
In most circumstances, Comcast, EPB and other cable and fiber line providers have had to wait until electric crews re-installed utility poles and reconnected power before the cable lines and broadband connections can be restored to most homes. EPB completed its power restoration to nearly 62,000 homes that lost electricity on Tuesday.
Comcast spokeswoman Sara Jo Walker said the cable TV giant has deployed crews since the storm and is continuing to work through the weekend to restore its telecommunication services.
Demand for such services has jumped during the coronavirus crisis, but Gumbs said Comcast's system tests continue to show the reliability of Comcast connections.
"We are seeing an unprecedented shift in network usage, but it's within the capability of our network; and we continue to deliver the speeds and support the capacity our customers need while they're working, learning, and connecting from home," Gumbs said.
Since March 1, peak traffic is up 32% upstream and 18% downstream. Voice over internet and video conferencing is up 228% since March 1 as more workers are working at home and joining in video conferences with other employees and customers.
With Americans being encouraged to stay at home to limit the spread of he COVID-19 virus, gaming downloads are up 77% and streaming TV and web video consumption is up 37% since the start of March, Gumbs said. The average household is watching two hours more of television a day, according to Comcast data.
"We engineer our core network to have significant excess capacity and our investments in upgrading our network are giving us plenty of headroom," Gumbs said.
Prior to March 7, WiFi networks were carrying 15 times more data traffic than wireless networks; now they are carrying 21 times more data , Walker said.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6340.