Comcast’s Nine-Hour Outage Cripples Haverhill’s Largest Business Park

Comcast message about the outage could not be seen over the company’s own service.

A lengthy and widespread business internet outage Wednesday brought down WHAV and shuttered offices throughout the Ward Hill Business Park, the city’s largest economic engine.

The nine-hour outage disconnected businesses from customers and even their own corporate offices. Comcast initially responded service would be restored at 7:23 p.m. and, when that deadline passed, texted businesses to “expect a resolution” by 10:23 p.m. WHAV’s service, which feeds audio from the radio station’s studios to its Silver Hill tower site, returned about 11:35 p.m.

A spokesperson for Comcast told WHAV after the first deadline passed, “I know that our local technicians are engaged and are working to resolve this ASAP.” No explanation for the outage was provided, but is expected.

Haverhill City Councilor John A. Michitson, who has long advocated attracting another broadband provider to Haverhill, frequently argues Comcast’s monopoly puts the city at a disadvantage.

“Back in the 1950s, if you didn’t have an exit off the major highway, you were in trouble as far as economic development goes,” he said. “Well, the new highway is broadband and the internet,” he has said.

The crippling of communications in and out of the city’s largest business and industrial park may add more fuel to his arguments.

Besides internet, Comcast’s telephone and television services also went down.

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